doubt; and the conviction induces me to continue these remarks for the upper river. For about one hundred miles, as far as Quai-chow, the character of the river is the same, a succession of gorges with occasional rapids, but no want of water. The force of the current, estimated in June, was for this portion an average of six knots per hour, and in some of the rapids as much as ten.* The chart and native pilots will be the guide against rocks and reefs; but the commanders of the first steamers on these waters must not expect to find the river quite accurately laid down, for some few rocks and other obstructions may have escaped notice, and of course the scale to which the chart has been reduced renders many of the smaller features hardly perceptible.

Above Quai-chow, although the mountains are not so high, and the hill-sides are less steep, still the river continues for some distance in a narrow and rocky bed, and frequent rapids are met with, but they are neither so strong nor so awkward as those among the gorges; and what is a considerable rapid for junks might often be altogether escaped by a steamer keeping in the deep mid-channel. As Wan is approached, the river's bed enlarges, sand and shingle flats are met with, and one general remark may apply to almost the whole river above this, except in a few reaches where the upheaval of the rocky strata forms ugly reefs sometimes in mid-channel; and I consider that with a good pilot or junk-skipper, of which there are thousands in Sz'-chuan, a small handy steamer would find no difficulty in ascending the Yang-tsze to Chungking. So far as water is concerned, I think there never can be a want of it; for our soundings always showed a sufficiency, the most shoal crossing we made the whole time having two and a half fathoms in one part of it. This, however, was in April and May, and is no criterion of what it may be in

*See Chap. VIII.

winter, when the water is at its lowest; besides, we may have missed some shoal places. But the general appearance of the stream, and the volume of water which passes down it, give the idea that want of depth is not a fault of the Upper Yang-tsze.

Above Chung-king, the great mercantile centre of Sz'chuan, the Yang-tsze is somewhat narrower than between Chung-king and Wan; and when the different tributaries which fall in are deducted, of course the size of the main stream is considerably reduced by the time we reach Sü-chow, over fifteen hundred geographical miles from Shanghai. Up to this point no extraordinary difficulties in the navigation need be looked for, any more than below Chung-king; and I think it will be found quite suitable for such steamboats as I have advocated.

The Min, falling in at Sü-chow, is a large tributary, and the Yang-tsze is sensibly smaller above; while before reaching Ping-shan, thirty-eight miles above, there is a strong rapid or two, and the banks are very rocky. There are said to be falls about thirty miles above Ping-shan, but the truth of their existence depends on native report, not always to be relied on, but possibly correct.

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN INDIA AND CHINA.

Since the ratification of the last treaty with the Emperor of China, a good deal has been thought in some quarters of the establishment of a commercial route by land to connect that country with our Indian empire, and for the development of the resources of its more western provinces; it being urged that the present communication by sea, via the Strait of Malacca, is long and indirect. Several schemes have been proposed with this view, all proposing to take more or less advantage of the rivers of Burmah, or of those which find their way into the Bay of Bengal. The object of these schemes seems to be to get into the province of Yu-nan, from

an erroneous notion-which originated in the mistake of a that the best teas of China are grown in that

name

province. That any one of these schemes is at all likely to be carried out seems to me most improbable, now that we know of a river suitable for steam navigation running through the whole breadth of middle China, and of the pitch of perfection to which sea-going steamers are now brought. It is too much the fashion to underrate the difficulties of land-transport nowa-days; still, for the sake of geography, I would say nothing that might discourage exploratory enterprise in the littleknown region through which such routes would pass; but it appears to me that beyond the establishment of the fact of an overland communication between India and China, and its use by baggageless travellers, little practical good is likely to result from the expenditure of any amount of life and capital on such an enterprise.

It has been very generally supposed that the Upper Yangtsze Expedition-our private enterprise-besides being a Government undertaking, with some deep political antiRussian object, was made with a view of discovering a practicable route between India and China; but we might well have been looked upon as maniacs when we left Shanghai in February, 1861, if, in our intention to pass out of Western China into the mountainous regions of Tibet, and so along the north of the Himalayas, to the passes into North-Western India, we had the slightest idea that by so doing we should be advancing such a project. I would therefore correct this misapprehension by stating that no such idea entered our heads; but that our object was simply the exploration of the country and the pursuit of sporting.

As to a line of communication for travellers between India and Eastern and Central China, the most feasible route, judging from the map, seems to me to be up the Brama

pootra by steam to Sudya, or near it, and thence to the Yang-tsze Kiang, which, in a direct line, would necessitate only about two hundred and twenty geographical miles overland. But then we know little or nothing of that interval, and, from its general geographical features, may fairly put it down as a mountainous region; while of that part of the Yang-tsze which such a route would strike, we are in ignorance as to its capability for navigation, and are led to infer, from native report, that it would be unsuited, at any rate for steam-vessels, much above Ping-shan.

However, that this route should receive the attention of Government is certainly advisable, for it is probable that by it a line of electric telegraph will be ultimately carried; and I would therefore hope to persuade the Government of India not to defer its exploration. Once on the Yang-tsze, an expedition would probably find little difficulty in descending that river by native craft to Ping-shan; and then it would be on known waters, whence the current of the great river would quickly carry it to our uppermost trading ports. Such an expedition, while costing little expense, would be of the greatest geographical value, if of no other importance.

CHAPTER XVIII.

DOWN THE KIN-CHA KIANG.

We will now resume our narrative, in which the reader was left near Ping-shan, a place in round numbers eighteen hundred statute miles up the Yang-tsze Kiang, and eleven hundred distant from any place of residence of Europeans, excepting always the Roman Catholic missionaries in disguise. Having accompanied us so far, it would be unfair to leave him there in the lurch; and I shall therefore devote these last two chapters to relating our return journey to the coast. As no description of the country will be required after what has been said of it on the upward voyage, I shall confine myself to tracing our route, noting the halting-places, and giving the distances actually travelled;-which, by the help of the map attached to this volume, but still better by the chart of the river published on a large scale by my friend Mr. Arrowsmith, will be easily followed by any one: adding only a few observations which have been omitted in previous chapters.

Finding no inducement sufficient to prevail on our skipper or the boatmen to take us again near enough to Ping-shan to have another look at it, we left our halting-ground three miles below that place at 7 A.M. on the 30th May. Numbers of boats were continually descending with living freights of affrighted citizens, who gave us the most alarming accounts concerning the siege; but whether Ping-shan was ultimately captured or not we never learned. Twenty-five minutes down stream brought us to the village of Fo-yien-chi, where