A few feet nearer and it would have blotted out the life of one whom the profession could ill spare.

We camped at Laowatan.
A chair with three bearers was waiting for me in the morning, so that I left the town of Laowatan in a manner befitting my rank.

The town had risen to see me leave, and I went down the street amid serried ranks of spectators.

We crossed the river by a wonderful suspension bridge, 250 feet long and 12 feet broad, formed of linked bars of wrought iron.

It shows stability, strength, and delicacy of design, and is a remarkable work to have been done by the untutored barbarians of this land of night.