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Show n --- -rr v 'Xri 'h"- 1 Blowing Up Skins Which Buoy a Yellow River Raft. Prepared by National Geographic Society. Washington. D. C. W.NU Service. STKEAMLIXE trains and giant airliners recently have been in the spotlight in America; Italy is still applauding an airminded son who sped through the air more than 400 miles an hour a short time ago; and Great Britain is just quieting down after celebrating cele-brating the victory of her flyers who won the London-Mei'bourne air race. In Germany streamline trains are linking additional cities as quickly as the new type transportation transporta-tion equipment can be manufactured. manufac-tured. Modern transportation, this., But one can still find types of transportation transpor-tation facilities, even in the world's largest cities and their rural neighborhoods, neigh-borhoods, that were in use decades and even centuries ago. There is not a sizable town In the United States in which one cannot hail a taxi, and in many of them charter a plane; yet the top-hatted cabbie, whose pompous figure held sway over traffic on boulevards In the gay nineties, has not been entirely en-tirely shelved. These "taximen" of another era have jealously watched as new traffic lights have been Installed, In-stalled, traffic lanes have been painted to keep modern motorists from crushing bumpers and fenders, and streets have been widened and trees sacrificed to make room for more of their rivals; yet they still constitute something of a traffic problem. Ox-Drawn Vehicles. Within sight of concrete, 40-mile-an-hour highways, and less than a hundred miles from Washington, D. C, and Annapolis, Md., ox-drawn vehicles still lumber along; while In the isolated mountain regions of the West, sure-footed burros and pack mules continue to be the only companions of many rugged prospectors. pros-pectors. Millions of visitors arrive at Atlantic At-lantic City by automobile, airplane and train, yet to see the "sights" along the Boardwalk, they hire three-wheeled rolling chairs. Others Oth-ers arrive at Bermuda aboard palatial pala-tial steamships hut take to bicycles and horse-drawn carriages to tour the island. What traveler leaves Durban, Natal, without employing a Zulu rikshaman? The dark-hued tribesman tribes-man in gay-feathered headdress and scant clothing, is one of the colorful features of the South African Af-rican city. In remote Szechwan province, China, wheelbarrows, which are the local transports, have worn ruts in flagstone pavements; pave-ments; In Sumatra, if one goes native, na-tive, he must travel in a buffalo-drawn buffalo-drawn cart whose thatched top Is shaped like a sway-backed horse, and is pointed at each end. In Palermo, Pa-lermo, Sicily, the purely Sicilian way to get about is by native cart, a two-wheeled vehicle on whose side panels are gayly depicted Bible scenes and Sicilian panoramas ; and in Ireland, the Irish jaunting car on which passengers sit back to back and face outward lends atmosphere atmos-phere to a tour of the Emerald Isle. Llamas still carry loads In the Andes, and elephants still are favored fa-vored among the tiger hunters of India. In spite of progress in Belgium, Bel-gium, the morning milk is still delivered de-livered by dogcart at many a doorstep, door-step, and dog sleds are yet the most dependable transportation In the Icy wastes of the Arctic and Antarctic. The tired explorer enjoys comfortable travel in a hammocklike hammock-like chair borne by native porters In central Africa; the mountaineers of northern India and western China employ the yak as their beast of burden ; the camel still plods the caravan routes of north Africa, Arabia and central Asia; and the carabao (water buffalo) Is the dependable de-pendable draft-animal of the East Indian islands. "Floating Population." Land transportation Is of no Interest In-terest whatever to millions of Chinese. Chi-nese. Children are born, grow up, marry, carry on their lives, and work aboard the sampans of China's floating cities. Most of the great river cities of southern and central China have such a "floating population," but the boat dwellers of Shanghai and Canton form large communities in themselves. A traveler of sufficient energy could laboriously progress for miles by Jumping from the deck of one sampan to another. Like the Dutch canal boat dwellers, dwell-ers, these river folk are a race 'unto themselves, apart from the common run of their fellow men. In many i-nses their mode of life has been handed down from father to son 'nr generations. When China's teeming teem-ing acres became overcrowded and expensive, and a growing commerce demanded river transportation In even larger volume, many ingenious Chinese combined business with economy and took to living aboard their tiny craft Although business might call far and wide along the numerous rivers and canals it was the large commercial commer-cial centers at the mouths of mighty streams that offered the most lively carrying trade. Hence these cities early became headquarters for the water dwellers. The riverman often made long voyages up country, but he always came home to roost. Hence the dirty, evil-smelling stretches of river and backwash surrounding such centers as Canton and Shanghai, Shang-hai, and even around Hongkong and Singapore, became the native heath of an army of sampan dwelling dwell-ing Chinese, who from childhood have known no other life. The visible means of support of these communities is the carrying trade from wharf to wharf, and from bund to steamer or junk, across river and up canals. Barnyard Afloat. Some sampans house petty merchants mer-chants and peddlers who carry on a small trade in the necessaries of life from boat to boat within the water colony itself. Occasionally a craft Is filled to overflowing with huge white ducks which fatten in the daytime on the tidal mud flats or harvested fields, and at night walk a gangplank back to their floating barnyard. They proceed, one by one, in a quacking and pushing push-ing single file, each hurrying not to be the last duck aboard. The return re-turn home in the evenings is sometimes some-times hastened, it is said, by giving the last duck a sharp crack with a switch. The awkward procession soon, learns the trick and a comic tvmiult arises not to be the unfortunate unfor-tunate tail of the procession. Chinese sampans are marvelously easy to handle, being the product of generations of adaptation to environment. en-vironment. They dart like water spiders here and there amidst the harbor traffic, clustering like barnacles barna-cles around the great steamers anchored an-chored offshore. With lightning swiftness, they flee in droves before be-fore an approaching storm, each knowing as if by instinct his own place In the quiet reaches. In spite of the shifting needs of commerce, family life aboard proceeds pro-ceeds about its daily routine as usual, albeit in rather more cramped quarters. Clothes, vegetables, and babies are washed side by side in the stream and the cooking Is done above a diminutive brazierlike stove. Growing children help with the handling of the boat and cargo, and grandmothers In blue cotton ragged garments smoke long-stemmed pipes. At night all draw together and neighborly chatter from boat to boat sounds like that of a newly arrived flock of blackbirds. The river riv-er folk are poor but extremely cheerful, especially over the evening eve-ning meal. Lights from great modern liners shine across the harbor and music from an occasional gaily decked pleasure barge floats from the midstream mid-stream channel. In few other places lurks so strongly the spell of the East. Raft Transports. On the shallow, shifting nwang Ho, or Yellow river of China rafts are the principal means of transport, trans-port, especially for freight cargoes. There are two types of raft: one using as buoys Inflated sheepskins, and the other, large ox-hldes which are stuffed with wool and then tied up to keep them water-tight The sheepskin rafts vary in size, according accord-ing to the use for which they are Intended, ranging from as few as 12 to 15 skins on the small one-man rafts. For the large rafts some 120 ox-hldes are used. The ox-hldes are carefully treated on the Inside with salt and oil. This treatment not only preserves and waterproofs them but also keeps them flexible. There is no extraordinary extraor-dinary technique required In the construction of a raft Poles are lashed together, forming a framework frame-work to which the hides or sheepskins sheep-skins are fastened. Moslem Chinese who form a considerable con-siderable percentage of the population popula-tion of Kansu province, are the rafts men on the Yellow river. A sturdy people, they stand well the hardships of river life. It Is far from an easy life with all the contrasts con-trasts of heat and cold and the strenuous labor involved In handling the clumsy transports through the rapids; or freeing them, once they have stranded on a sand bar. The men, however, are happy and friendly. |