doubled up like shrivelled rabbits in a hutch. The process of enjoyment was curious. The prepared opium is softened in the candle, and then pushed through a very small pin-hole at the top of the pipe's bowl by a needle. When full, the pipe is taken into the mouth, the hole applied to the candle, and every atom of smoke drawn closely down into the lungs by successive breathings. There it remains, till it comes out again like smoke from a volcano. This process is continued ad libitum, and the filling of the pipe takes much more time than the smoking: consumption is diversified with preparation. The enjoyment is intense, and many appear to the stranger as lost to everything else (as some older hands are), who, nevertheless, can work well and gain money when not lying curled up and given over to their strange delights. We were quite satisfied when we retraced our steps through the close wooden labyrinths, and I could not but reflect on what these places must be on hot nights, for our night was cold, with one of Frisco's well-known fogs.

Hence we were taken to a very opposite sceneto the really magnificent chief Chinese restaurants. The deep and elaborate gilded carvings which adorn these interiors all come from China; framed marbles of curious veinings, handsome wooden and inlaid tables, are plentiful, and the dinners that are sometimes given to friends were described to us as costly and luxurious; for there are many wealthy Chinese in Frisco among the merchants. At one of these re

staurants we had a Chinese tea-green tea, and of the most delicate flavour I remember to have ever tasted-except on one certain special occasion, by the way, and that in London, after dining with a China merchant. Here we felt ourselves in China. There was sugar, but no vulgar milk, and no vulgar teapot-begging that most respectable article's pardon for the momentary slight. All was of the finest china. Then in what was the tea made? It was made as we make it in the teapot, but in a rather large elegantly shaped china basin, covered over with what looked like an inverted saucer, of course of the same ware. When ready, the Chinaman took the basin gracefully in his hand, and, pressing down the cover with one finger, made an opening, and poured out the tea into the cups. He offered us something to eat, but as the Chinese cannot pronounce the r, he called it "blead." We all agreed, however, that the flavour of the tea was too delicate to be interrupted by any other; and, indeed, the really true teadrinker would not have permitted even the small intrusion of sugar that we indulged in.

The Chinese of all grades are numerous in Frisco; in short, the American government have at last placed restriction on their importation. They are said to number 35,000 in all, and we were credibly informed, of what seemed incredible, that there are not even a thousand women among the number. Certain it is, however, that I saw only two mothers with their infants among all. The lower classes live

economically, except as regards those who indulge in opium, and their habit, in general, is to keep sending their money to China until they can afford to follow it. They crowd together in their dwellings. I scarcely could believe our guide when he pointed out a large house-it was a large one-and assured us that two thousand of them found means of living there. In the common eating-houses their eating is not elegant in appearance; and one of them, at the signifying of my request, exhibited the mode of eating his basin of rice with chop-sticks. The process would not teach me to like rice. Their shops are enticing, and we were tempted to buy some small scarfs and handkerchiefs of Kwong Shew Lun and Co. I must not omit to add that we were also admitted to their Joss House-a small interior, with a figure of Confucius, before whom, as in other and later religions, candles were burning, and incense in this case from the joss-stick-was smoking.

And now for YO SEMITE- -a name which was given to the Great Waterfall by the indigenes, and is said to mean "The large grizzly bear." Hence the name of the valley-Yo Semite Valley, which here, and here only, I write thus to secure the proper pronunciation.

We started at half-past three o'clock on Wednesday, the 18th of August, across the bay, and took the railway to a place called Berenda, where we stopped for the night, and slept in a Pullman stand-still car. At half-past six on Thursday we continued our railway course to Raymond, where we found a meagre breakfast, and mounted the open-seated four-in-hand