CHAPTER II.

CH’UNG-K’ING TO THE CAPITAL OF KUEI-CHOW.

My overland caravan--Harvesting opium--Field-fishing--Wood-oil--The manufacture of paper--Salt carriers--Silkworms and their food--Rice or Pith paper, and its manufacture--The Kuei-chow frontier--Minerals--First meeting with Miao-tzŭ--Poetical description of Chinese inns--T’ung-tzŭ, its poppy valley and tunnelling--Ingenious bamboo water-wheels--Scant population amid ruins of fine houses--Coal-dust as fuel--The Wu Chiang River--Destruction of the iron suspension bridge--Northern Kuei-chow, a Miao-tzŭ graveyard--Opium-sodden inhabitants--The capital of the Province--An interview with the Governor of Kuei-chow 14