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From the shape of these boats, resembling somewhat the half of an egg cut lengthwise, they are called in the Chinese language "egg-boats." A large family will sometimes pack itself into an egg-boat not much more than twelve feet long and six broad. These river-folk have characteristics which almost render them a people apart.
The tide, running strongly up or down, affords the motive-power; "the crew" has but to steer. Often unwieldy, and piled clumsily with cargo, one might reasonably suppose their safe piloting to be a nautical impossibility; yet so perfect is the skill the instinct, rather of these almost amphibious river-folk, that a little child, not uncommonly a girl, shall lead them.
The salmon's family affairs had reached an important stage; and the "redd," furrowed in the gravel by the mated fish, contained thousands of newly deposited eggs. And, as many of the river-folk, from the big trout to the little water-shrew, continually threatened a raid on the spawn, the salmon guarded each approach to the shallows with unremitting vigilance.
Brighteye was a familiar figure to all the river-folk, while he, in turn, knew most of them, and had learned to distinguish between friends and foes. But occasionally he made a slight mistake.
Possibly one cause for this may be that which some humourist suggested as the reason why "birds in their little nests agree," namely, because it would be dangerous if they "fell out." But, speaking seriously, it says much for the placable nature of these Chinese river-folk that they can pass such a happy existence within the narrow bounds of their egg-boats.
The otter-cubs, grown wiser than when the angler saw them near the sycamore, discreetly stayed at home, for they had been taught to regard this strange being, Man, known by his peculiar footfall and upright walk, as a dreaded enemy scarcely less formidable than the hounds and the terriers that at intervals accompanied him for the express purpose of hunting such river-folk as otters and rats.
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