_December 17th.--Ten A.M._--The gunboats are hunting for a channel.... I am going ashore. On this day last year I embarked on board this ship for the first time. What an eventful time I have spent since then! _Four P.M._--I have returned from my walk, but, alas! no good news to greet me. Only eleven feet of water, where we found seventeen on the way up.... Our walk was pleasant enough, though it rained part of the time. Some of the gentlemen shot, for the whole of China is a preserve, the game hardly being molested by the natives. We went into the house of a small landowner of some three or four acres; over the door was a tablet to the honour of a brother who had gained the highest literary degree, and was therefore eligible for the highest offices in the State. The owner himself was not so literary, and had bought the degree of _bachelor_ for 108 taels (about 35_l_.). If he tried to purchase the degree of _master_ he would have, he said, 1,000 taels to pay, besides passing through some kind of examination. We asked him about the Rebels. He said that when they visited the rural districts, they took whatever they pleased, saying that it belonged to their Heavenly Father. Before meat they make a prayer to the Heavenly Father, ending with a vow to destroy the 'demons' (Imperialists). 'But,' added my informant, 'they are poor creatures, and their Heavenly Father does not seem to do much for them.' We also visited a manufactory where they were extracting oil from cotton-seed. _December 18th.--Six P.M._--We are to try a channel, such as it is, to-morrow morning. I landed for a walk. Wade took a gun with him. We saw quantities of waterfowl of all kinds. The plain on the left bank of the river is bounded on the other side by a pretty lake. The plain is subject to inundations, and seems to be covered by a bed of sand of about five feet in thickness. The people cultivate it by trenching for the clay beneath, and mixing it with the sand. _December 19th.--10.30 A.M._--The 'Cruiser' went through this bad passage safely. We followed, and are now aground. Anchors are being laid out in hopes of dragging the ship over. [Sidenote: Pressing through the mud.]