CHAPTER XII

CROSS RANGES.

AFTER being pestered by the mob for about two hours and a half we got away from Fu at 1.25 P.M. on the same day that we arrived, the 24th of April; we were forced, however, to stop again before we had gone more than a mile and a quarter, to allow of some of our hands coming up who had gone ashore at the town, and there was a good deal of hammering of brass gongs before they all made their appearance. Our crew was a very mixed lot, with some curious characters among them. There were about five-and-twenty to the large boat, but at different places where we stopped a good many of them changed; so that by the time we gave up these Sz'chuan boats there were very few of the original hands remaining. Among those who kept by us was an inveterate opium-smoker; indeed many of them, from the cheapness of the drug, used opium more or less. He was a tall, well-built, but rather slender fellow, and had evidently been good-looking; but the continued sucking at the opium-pipe had given his mouth a screwed-up and parched appearance, and his eyes were constantly bloodshot, and of that yellowish fishy appearance consequent on a life of debauchery. He was still a young man, and not a bad worker when he was at it, and I often thought of his case, and reflected how sad a thing it was to see a young fellow in the prime of life destroying himself day by day through this vile infatuation. Immediately his work was over in the evening he took to his opiumpipe, and often when kept up late with night observations I

stumbled over him stretched on the deck beneath a small grass mat with his little lamp still burning. Then again at mid-day he frequently indulged in a few whiffs in place of the bowl of rice which he should have eaten for his dinner, and I wondered how the man stood the severe work of voyaging when he thus encroached so much on his rest, and deprived himself of his necessary subsistence. There must in this drug be some power which by inducing nervous excitement keeps the frame fit for laborious occupation, under which it would otherwise succumb, without the usual subsistence and rest. Then there was a man who from continually going without clothes had got a skin on him almost rivalling that of the hippopotamus, and was as dark as many a nigger; he was a hard-working fellow, and the swelled and knotted veins on his legs attested a long continuance of severe labour. He was a great singer, and when they all came on board for the purpose of crossing the river, or getting past some precipitous portion of the bank where tracking was not possible, he was usually the one to strike up a song, in which all the others chimed in at each stroke of the oar, and at intervals joined in a general chorus. We could never make out exactly what their songs were, but fancied they were a mixture of voyaging work and licentious ditties, something akin no doubt to the Canadian canoe songs.

There were several others whom I now recollect as well as possible from some peculiarity of habit or physiognomy. The bowsman was a tall well-made handsome man, a fine specimen of the natives of Sz'chuan, with a noble countenance and handsome black moustache; his particular duty was to direct the men who worked the large bow-sweep, which has been mentioned as used in rapids and strong places for keeping the boat's head in the right direction; but when this was not in use he was generally standing at the forepart of the

boat with a long iron-shod bamboo pole in hand, directing by his motions the man at the helm, who was guided by him as to the depth of water, which he frequently sounded with the pole, and how to steer so as to avoid projecting rocks and large stones, which he could discover by the eddies of the stream. A good bowsman is of primary importance. His son was among the crew, and assisted his father when extra strength was required in poling the boat's head clear of some obstruction, and the governor often set the boy to take his place at the bow when the navigation was comparatively easy; then lighting his long pipe he squatted himself down, and set to work in the most systematic manner to hunt for vermin in his cotton clothes.

The cook was a curious specimen of humanity, but I fancy quite an enthusiast in his profession, for he seldom got out of the hole in the middle of the deck where his fire and large open cooking-pan were situated; he used to amuse us by the methodical way in which he went to work in washing rice before boiling it, cutting up vegetables, and occasionally frying live eels, whose wriggling motions when scalding against the hot iron of the pan he seemed to regard with intense satisfaction. He was a little bit of a fellow, and owned an old straw hat, which, although it had no crown to it, he used always to take particular care to tie under his chin, for fear of losing so valuable an article. He was minus one eye, which increased the oddity of his appearance. When he came out of his hole at a rapid where every man's assistance was required, his particular department was the drum for signalling to the trackers, on which he used to beat away most vehemently, shouting all the time, like everybody else, as if the lives of all on board were in imminent danger.

Of plain food these men ate voraciously, and by reference to the "log," in which the exact times of starting and halting are invariably noted, I am enabled to give the average time

for a meal at seventeen minutes and a half. During the latter part of our voyage, when the weather was very hot, they would eat no less than five times daily, stopping four times during the day for the purpose, and taking their last meal after halting in the evening. They were supplied with food by the skippers, receiving in money only 100 cash, equal to about 5d., per diem. But I cannot devote more space to my friends the voyagers, and only hope that others who may follow in our steps on the Upper Yang-tsze will be equally interested in these hard-working and poorly paid boatmen.

Three miles above Fu the course of the river brought us near the fortified hills mentioned in the last chapter, and after this we saw many more of such places. The whole summit of a hill was frequently enclosed by walls of masonry, on others were merely square redoubts sufficient to resist a coup de main. We were told that they were of recent construction, built by people of the district as places of refuge to which they might flee in case of rebel invasion, of which they live in great dread. After this we passed through a very picturesque region, and anchored at night about four miles above the small town of Li-tu, where there were some temples perched on the tops of some very pretty wooded hills. About this part of the country we observed a great deal of tobacco under cultivation, wheat, and some very fine fourranked barley (Hordeum tehastichum); also the nettle hempplant (Bæhmeria nivea), so extensively used throughout China for the manufacture of what is called "grass-cloth." We had no difficulty in procuring vegetables, among which were French beans, peas, a purplish-coloured spinach (amaranthus), and cucumbers. Besides Colonel Sarel's ferns, which are given in the Appendix, Dr. Barton collected a few seeds in Sz'chuan; among them were the "Tung-tsze" (Eloococca verrucosa), already mentioned; a large creeper (species of

dolichos); a melilot, probably undescribed; a strawberry (Fragraria indica?); a vetch, not known; a species of Xanthoxylon; an oak (Quercus chinensis); and some tubers of a species of curcuma.

On the 25th of April, which completed forty days of our pilgrimage on the Upper Yang-tsze, we started at five in the morning and halted at seven in the evening, having made eighteen miles, and reached Chang-show. During the day we passed the villages of Lin-shih, Shi-kia-tu, two other smaller villages, and the rapid of Hwang-pin-ma. The country was hilly, particularly around the village of Lin-shih, and near the rapid, at which latter place the range through which the river breaks was to a great extent clothed with a small growth of trees, and here we saw coal and limestone being worked within a few yards of each other. This was the first of a series of ranges of hills through which the river from the course it pursues is obliged to force its way. By reference to the map it will be seen that we passed through several of them. They are ranged generally within a point or two of N.N.E. and S.S.W., and spread over a large tract of this part of Sz'chuan. I examined them in several places, including the range opposite Chung-king, and always found that the principal rock was the same grey limestone which occurs on such a large portion of the upper valley of this river, but that the upheaval caused limestone to crop out, in the vicinity of which coal was always to be found. I have called these ranges of hills the "Cross Ranges;" and as they are a great feature in one of the geographical districts into which I have divided the country, I shall have to speak of them hereafter. We saw some more fortified camps or redoubts, also of late construction, before we came to Changshow, which is, by observation made on the opposite side of the river, in latitude 29° 50′, and is 677 geographical miles from Hankow, and 1265 from Shanghai. It is but a small