Our pleasant visit to Tsin-Chow-Fu at last came to an end, as all pleasant things must, and on the Tuesday before Christmas Day we were obliged to bid farewell to our friends there, of whose exceeding kindness we shall long retain grateful recollections. On December 23, we took our departure for Chow-ping, a two-days' journey, where we were to spend Christmas Day. I found the wheel-barrow so great an improvement on the Chinese cart that I resolved to use it again on this occasion, and one of the missionaries placed his barrow at my disposal. The wheel-barrow is one of the most important and useful of Chinese institutions, and is in this part of China more largely employed for various purposes than any other mode of conveyance, or, even of all other conveyances combined. Nearly everything is carried on wheel-barrows, and by the poor it is largely used to carry persons. Our missionaries have seized the idea of the wheel-barrow, and have improved, upon it, and the result is that they have, for fine weather, the most comfortable conveyance that I have seen in this country, and one which, with its single wheel, can travel where no two-wheeled conveyance could possibly go.

The barrow is a strong wooden framework about six feet long and four feet six inches broad, with two short shafts at each end, which the barrow-men hold.