Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 39 (Color Image)

0039	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. i.] THE YALU.

porridge, vegetable stews, and soups were their

chief food, which they ate out of bowls in huge

quantities. Their houses were often com-

fortable, well-built, and roomy, though not

always as clean as they might have been, but

still on the whole far better homes than one

would expect to find in the backwoods of a

colony. And I was 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 it three

hundred yards or so broad, and ten to fifteen

feet deep. Its sides were covered down to

the water's edge with forests, and at intervals,

where the ground was flatter, were patches of

cultivation and a few farmhouses, or meadows

covered with flowers of every description

often with masses of stately lilies, some

specimens of which measured six inches

across, or with waving sheets of purple irises

and columbines. Then gliding noiselessly

across the scene would come a raft drifting

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