Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 66 (Color Image)

0066	Among the Celestials : vol.1

42 AMONG THE CELESTIALS. [CHAP. II.

After a couple of days' rest at Sansing, we

turned southward and ascended the Hurka

river to Ninguta. The road was execrable.

We still had our carts, and how we, or rather

the drivers, managed to get them along a road

really fit only for pack-animals was a marvel.

There was a constant series of ascents and

descents of spurs running down to the river.

These were nearly always steep, and the road

narrow and rocky. Small villages were only

occasionally met with, and the country was far

less well populated than that we had recently

come through. The hills were covered with

woods of oak and birch, and their summits with

pines. Amongst them, it was said, there were

gold-mines, which, however, it was only per-

missible for government to work, as the

Chinese think that indiscriminate gold-mining

only leads to fighting, quarrelling and trouble ;

the emperor therefore absolutely forbids his

subjects to mine for gold. We crossed

numerous side streams, and these, as well

as the Hurka itself, swarm with fish, mostly

salmon. The natives form dams across the

side streams, and catch them in hundreds. So

at this time, what with pheasants, ducks, geese,

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