some satisfaction to know that a most useless piece of furniture was thus rendered unserviceable, and that, when we should come to arrange our things for travelling overland, it would allow of our lightening our baggage very considerably.

I-chang stands on a blunt point of the Yang-tsze and on its left bank, a small branch of the river forming an island immediately above the walled part of the town. The water is shoal off the city, the main lead of the river being nearer the other shore. The country to the rear or east and southeast is broken into small hills and ridges, and the upland soil is of a red clayey nature. Much ground is appropriated to graves close to the city, but beyond it is cultivated by irrigation, except the hill-tops and steep sides, on which clumps of small pine are dotted about. To the north, west, and south-west, the whole country is mountainous; but it is impossible to select any decided ranges or peaks from the confused mass. There are many curiously-formed mountaintops, usually with one or more sides precipitous; but they are all much about the same level, and so jumbled together that seldom any particular one can be distinguished from more than one point of view. The monastery previously mentioned is on one of the most commanding positions, and was estimated at about 1000 feet above the river. Just below the city, and on the opposite or right bank, is a very decided cliff surmounted by a sharp peak, which has been called "I-chang Peak;" it is not nearly as high as others more inland, being about 400 feet, but has an imposing appearance from the river. The geological formation of this rugged region is a very coarse conglomerate, with sometimes sandstone associated.

It was on our seventeenth day from the Tung-ting Lake that we arrived at I-chang, and we remained there three days.

CHAPTER VIII.

GORGES AND RAPIDS.

NOTWITHSTANDING that at I-chang we were a thousand miles from the sea, porpoises had kept us company the entire distance, and it was only here that these last relics of the "briny deep" bid us farewell, and, giving an extra roll or two over for our especial edification, seemed to say, as plain as Canton English could speak-"That top-side river no belong Mr. Neptune King, hab got too muchey rock and rapid, makey all same chow-chow water!"-meaning thereby to inform us that the river above was no longer suited to their constitutions, and that, not being imbued with any great ardour for exploration, they preferred to remain and disport themselves in the more placid waters below. But we are in a new boat! and some five-and-twenty naked and half-naked fellows are dragging us along at a smart rate by a long plaited bamboo line, while I-chang is fast fading behind us. See how they have to scramble along the precipitous rocky shore! Sometimes on their hands and knees, at others with foothold only for their toes, or on sloping smooth rock where their grass sandals only keep them from slipping into the foaming current below. Now we see them high above us, running along on the verge of a precipice, and shouting like a lot of madmen; then they are down again and clambering round a point of rock which projects out into the river, and where some little cautiousness, which they seem to have among them, causes the leaders to get past the impediment first without the line, and then, it being thrown to them,

they run on again with it, and leave the others to get round as best they can; then again they all come up, except always two or three who keep behind for the purpose of clearing the line from projecting rocks, and, hitching on the cords of their breast-straps to the towing or tracking-line by an ingenious turn of the button round it, away they go again like a pack of hounds in full cry. When they come to a place where the rush of the water is unusually strong, and necessitates a harder tug, one fellow, a wag or actor, jumps out from the rest, and, running ahead of the crowd, turns summersaults on the ground, and goes through other grotesque antics for the amusement of his companions; then, by way of a change, beginning with the foremost, he belabours them all round with a stick he carries for that purpose; then he runs ahead again, and going down on his knees "chin-chins" them, after the manner in which praying before the altar is performed in Bhuddist temples, as if to induce them by his entreaties to exert their strength; again he gives them a sound licking, or appears to do so, all round, and so on. He is the fool of the gang, and for a long time we considered the first whom we saw act in this capacity to be really an idiot. The line is now paid out from on board the junk, and made fast nearly amidships on a level with the gunwale, but is sprung upwards by a supernumerary line coming from the mast-head, and we sheer out into the stream to clear an outstanding rock; then in again and the line is shortened, and off the trackers start with a shout, and lay to their work like thoroughbreds. These are the Sz'chuan boatmen; we may well call them voyageurs.

For three miles above the town of I-chang the river retains the same character as it has for some distance below, except that on the right shore the banks are high and rocky; and in width the river has lessened nothing since dividing from the waters of Tung-ting Lake, being a good half-mile across;

but suddenly, as if by magic, we lose the "Son of the Ocean," and in its stead an impetuous current comes rushing towards us out of a long deep cleft in the mountains to the westward. The mouth of this gorge is not above two hundred and fifty yards in width, and its sides mount up vertically to three and five hundred feet, broken into crevices and ledges, where ferns and creepers of the brightest green flourish on the scanty soil of the moss-covered rock by the sides of dripping waterfalls; other plants, nestling in holes and corners, live a sunless existence, and relieve the rocky aspect of much of its harshness; while the dark foliage of small pine-trees on the tops of the cliffs, and an occasional bunch of bamboo, flourishing in all the freshness of spring, with the rugged peaks and sides of the higher mountains in the background, make up a scene of wild grandeur which baffles description, and might test the skill of no mean artist. The deep dark appearance of the water shut in from much of the light of day by the stupendous side-walls of rock, and the distant part of the gorge tinged by the bright atmospheric blue, yet still without end, and only broken by a miniature-looking junk with her spread of white canvas-this view, as it burst so unexpectedly on us as we rounded "Mussulman Point," and shut out I-chang and the plain of Hoo-peh, is one that will never become dimmed in my recollection by the lapse of time. I shall always remember-and it will recall many pleasing associations too-the entrance of the first gorge on the Yangtsze.

Our first day from I-chang we made ten geographical miles, which carried us just above the upper end of "I-chang Gorge," the course through which is first west-by-north, and then northerly. After the novelty of the thing wore off, this kind of travelling, where the view is so confined, became tedious, and we were glad to see a little more daylight on emerging from the dark shadows. At a small recess, which

occurs about half-way through, there is an excise establishment; we were not interfered with, however, by the officials, but they came across the river for the purpose of taking a look at the novel description of human cargo which our junk carried. We tried soundings with the lead, but could find no bottom with sixteen fathoms in the middle, and got five, and sometimes more, close in to the banks. The mode of progression was for the most part with oars, of which the crew pulled about eight on either side, standing up to their work facing the bows, and taking short and quick strokes, stamping and singing away merrily the whole time. Occasionally we came to a part of the river where the shore, not being quite precipitous, allowed of a short spell of tracking; and advantage was always taken of such a place, it being much easier than rowing in so strong a current. When the wind was fair, and it is always either right astern or ahead in these narrow passes, the sail, a large square cotton one, was used, which was a very great help. The geological nature of this gorge was the conglomerate and sandstone already mentioned, and a kind of hard limestone; but on this subject I shall have more to say by and by.

Three or four junks, containing military levies proceeding up country to take part against the rebels of Sz'chuan, halted for the night near where we had taken up our station; and these same boats, sometimes ahead and sometimes following, kept company with us for the next day or two, affording us plenty of opportunities for making acquaintance with the braves. They are usually what would be called, among most communities, "ugly-looking customers," and, if all I hear be true, they do not belie their appearance. A brave seems not very particular about his nether garments, except that the lower part of his legs and his ankles are bandaged with black or dark blue cotton-a practice by the way common among the male sex throughout Sz'chuan; but he invariably wears