in the country, away from the crowds of the towns, we could examine John Chinaman at leisure. All the part we were now in has been colonized by pure Chinese, who are taking the place of the original Manchus. These latter were few in numbers, and had been drafted off with their families to garrison the towns of China proper, and now the Chinese immigrants from the over-populated or famine-stricken districts of China were flowing into these Manchurian valleys, clearing away the forest, and bringing year by year more of it under cultivation. They were, in fact, doing here exactly what our colonists have been doing for so many years in Canada. The amount of work they got through was, I thought, marvellous. At the first streak of dawn they rose, had a good meal, and then set to at that heart-breaking work, clearing land of the stumps of trees which they had felled. Hour after hour they would work away, hacking and hewing at these, and some of them digging up the ground and preparing it for a crop, and at midday they would stop and have another square meal ; then return to the same old wearing task till darkness set in, when they would come trooping in for their evening meal. They were for the most part strong, hard men, with enormous appetites. Millet porridge, vegetable stews, and soups were their chief food, which they ate out of bowls in huge quantities. Their houses were often comfortable, well-built, and roomy, the roofs being the especial feature, as they are in all Chinese houses, on account of their great strength and solidity. The houses were not always as clean as they might have been, but still were on the whole far better homes than one would expect to find in the backwoods of a colony. And I was a good deal struck with the energetic spirit which these colonists showed in pushing their way through the forests. A Chinaman is always known to be industrious, but here was good tough vigour in addition.
At length we reached the Yalu, the natural boundary between Corea and Manchuria. It was a noble river where we struck
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