The afternoon was spent as the forenoon had been, but the party found little to interest them. The next day the tourists made an excursion up the Yang-tsze-Chiang, and enjoyed it very much. They saw a little of the farming operations, as a man ploughing with a buffalo, which looked more like a deer than a bovine; others carrying bundles of grain, one at each end of a pole on their shoulders; another threshing by beating a bunch of the stalks on a frame like a ladder or clothes-horse; but what pleased them most were the fishermen. One had a net several feet square, suspended at the end of a pole. It was sunk in the water, and then hauled up. Any fish that happened to be over it then was brought up with it; but Scott declared that this device was an old story, and they were used in the United States, though an iron hoop was the frame of the net.
They were more interested in the fishing with cormorants. A man with a dip-net in his hand stood on a bamboo raft, on which was a basket like those the snake-charmers use in India, to receive his fish. The birds were about the size of geese. They dived into the water, and brought up a fish every time. They have a ring or cord on their necks so that they cannot swallow their prizes, and they drop them into the dip-net.
They went up as far as Taiping, where they took a returning steamer, and that night slept on board the ships. On the following morning the steamers went down the river; and then the question where they were to go next came up, and the commander soon settled it by announcing that the ship was bound to Tien-tsin, on the way to Pekin.
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE WALLS AND TEMPLES OF PEKIN
The company had hardly expected that Captain Ringgold would go to the capital, for it was off the course to Japan, which was the next country to be visited; but their curiosity had been greatly excited, and he was disposed to gratify it.
"Pekin is not on navigable water, and we cannot go there in the ship," said he. "We go to Tien-tsin, which is the seaport of Pekin, about eighty miles distant from it. It is a treaty port, and is said to have a population of six hundred thousand; the number can doubtless be considerably discounted. The next thing is to get to Pekin; though we can go most of the way by boat to Tung-chow, thirteen miles from the capital. Some go all the way on horseback or by cart. We will decide that question when we get to Tien-tsin."
"How long will it take us to go there?" asked Uncle Moses.
"About two days; we are off Woo-Sung now. We have the pilot on board, and we shall go to sea at once," replied the commander.