The space between Shanghai and Hankow is now well-beaten ground, owing to the Company’s steamers, which start both ways every two or three days according to the freights they ship, carrying a large number of passengers, the majority of whom are Chinese. The chief interest to me is that twenty-seven years ago, when in the _Dido_, we formed one of a large fleet of upwards of seventy men-of-war and transports, all of which succeeded in getting up without the use of steam as far as Nankin, which brought about peace and the signing of the treaty which bore that name. [Sidenote: Mar. 9.] At sunset on Tuesday the 9th we came to off Chin-kiang, promising to visit Silver Island on our return. On the following morning we found that Mr. Allen, the Vice-Consul, and several other gentlemen, among whom was a son of my old friend Carnie of former days at Singapore, hearing of my weakness that way, had prepared a shooting excursion to Deer Island, some six miles up the river. As they could easily return with the current, we took the whole party on board the _Salamis_, and before noon proceeded up the river and anchored off the island, a long flat of about seven miles by four, and, except at the time when we arrived, covered with long and strong reeds, which the natives were cutting for thatch or fuel, making at same time temporary, but not uncomfortable, huts to live in. There was no lack of game or sportsmen, and from the quantity of firing the bag ought to have been a large one: seven deer, and a few varieties of duck, teal, and quail, was the result. The deer were what are called “hog,” with a coarse rough hair and a peculiar tusk protruding, boar fashion, from the jaw. We had an agreeable day and dined together in the wardroom, the Chin-kiang party not leaving until late. [Sidenote: Nankin, Mar. 11.] Weighed at daylight, and came to off Nankin, but not in time to perform an excursion to the Ming Tombs; people wishing to visit these comfortably should write beforehand and have ponies or chairs ready. We mounted the city wall on the highest point of the hill to the eastward, the view from whence gives a good idea of the vast extent of water and of the desolation inside. Fresh-looking ship guns marked U.S.R.M., which I read “United States Republic Marine,” were mounted and brought to bear on the only anchorage fit for ships of any size; they were about 42-pounders, of a pattern now obsolete, and had evidently been placed since the visit of the _Rodney_. Having been on the top of the great Porcelain Tower when it stood prominent in its magnificence, I did not care to go now, as travellers do, to seek for bricks among its ruins.