The plain of Tchao-tong seems to be the most extensive in Yunnan, and is carefully cultivated--a large portion of its area being appropriated to the growth of poppies for the manufacture of opium. Its inhabitants complain of want of water; and, in fact, their only sources of supply are some tiny rills, almost dry in the hot season. There are extensive deposits of anthracite and peat. A small pond, abounding in fish, lies to the south-west. [Illustration: MERCHANT TRAIN IN YUNNAN.] ~ARTICLES OF COMMERCE.~ Tchao-tong is one of the most important commercial _entrepôts_ between China and Yunnan. Enormous convoys of raw cotton, of English or native cotton stuffs, and of salt from Se-chuen, are here exchanged for the metals--tin and zinc more particularly--furnished by the environs of Tong-chuen, the medicinal substances which come from the west of Yunnan and the north of Tibet, and the nests of the _coccus sinensis_, which yield the pe-la wax. This insect breeds on a species of privet which grows in the mountainous parts of Yunnan and Se-chuen, and is thence transported to other trees favourable for the production of wax, which flourish in the warmer lowlands. Necessarily, these nests must be conveyed from point to point with great rapidity, lest the newly-hatched insects should die before arriving at their new abode; they are stored away in large baskets, divided into numerous compartments, and their bearers frequently accomplish thirty or forty leagues at double quick marching step. * * * * * ~THE JOURNEY CONTINUED.~ Resuming their journey, M. Garnier and his companions traversed a country of great beauty, studded with villages, and broken up into romantic highlands and wooded valleys, watered by copious rivers. On the 20th of April they reached Lao-oua-tan, a busy town on the Huang-kiang, at the point where the navigation of the river begins. Here they embarked on board a large boat with a capacity of thirty to forty tons, and began the descent of the river, admiring the skill with which the Chinese carried them through the successive rapids. In a couple of hours they arrived at Pou-eul-tou, a small port on the left bank, where Garnier and his companions landed, while their baggage and a part of the escort continued the journey by water. Garnier pressed forward through a truly Arcadian valley to Long-ki, the residence of the Vicar-Apostolic of Yunnan, Monseigneur Ponsot. It is needless to say that he was received with the warmest hospitality. ~THE BLUE RIVER.~