CHAP. XVIII. FUNG-SIANG AND WU-SHAN GORGES.

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less cotton among their cargoes, the rocks all around the site of the wreck were covered with this material spread out to dry in the hot sun.

Casting off at five o'clock on the morning of the 14th, we immediately entered the "Fung-siang," or Wind Gorge, and the rapid current hurried us onward until we were soon at a distance from Quai-chow. During our ascent I was too unwell from the effect of the "Tung-tsze" nut to be able to map this part of the river, and so I embraced this opportunity of getting a correct field-sketch of it. After passing through the gorge, one part of which is not more than 150 yards across, with immense cliffs rising vertically on both sides, and equal in grandeur to any on the river, the country continues mountainous, the general direction of the ranges being E.N.E. and W.S.W., with a height of 1000 to 1200 feet; and from a north-east reach of the river about nine miles below Quai-chow, which we reached in an hour and a half, there is seen a very fine gap in a steep mountain range on the right bank, which has a most romantic appearance. At 8 A.M. we passed Wu-shan (hien), but did not stop; then entering the long gorge of the same name, we crossed the boundary a few minutes before ten o'clock, and, leaving Sz'chuan, were once more in the province of Hoo-peh. We continued on; emerged from this gorge at the village of Kwan-du-kow at 11:30; passed Pa-tung (hien) at 12:10; and halted to rest the boatmen from 1 to 3.30, between the village of Niu-kow and the lower one of the two rapids near that place. These were the first strong rapids which we had met with coming down; many other places, which had been rapids when we ascended, were quite smoothed over by the rise of the water. Later in the afternoon we halted again for half an hour on account of the wind, which was very strong from the eastward, and anchored on the left bank, two miles above Kwei (chow), at 5.20 P.M., having

come this day sixty-two miles in a little over nine hours, being at the rate of over six and a half knots. The range of the thermometer during the day had been from 71° to over 86° in the shade, while in the sun's rays half an hour after noon it was 116°. The water of the river preserved the same uniform temperature as had been observed of late, namely, 73°. The continual moving through the air and the occasional strong breezes served to tone down the heat a good deal, which otherwise in these gorges would have been almost unbearable. In the evening a fine male specimen of a beautiful species of fly-catcher was added to my small collection, and I am indebted to Dr. Barton for discovering it.

The 15th of June was the seventeenth day of our downward voyage, although, from delays at Sü-chow, Chung-king, and other places, we had hardly done ten days' travelling. We started at 4:35 A.M., passed through the Mi-tan and Lu-kan gorges, and halted for three hours and forty minutes in the heat of the day among the rapids. In the reach above Shan-tow-pien, as well as at that below, the appearance of the river had totally changed from what it was when we passed up two months before: for, the water having risen considerably, all the low boulder rocks and reefs were submerged, causing the rapids to alter their position; but as I have spoken of them before, I need not recapitulate. scenery in this part, that is, between the "I-chang" and "Lu-kan" gorges, is, I think, as beautiful as any on the river. There is not that terrible sternness of the gorges, nor the monotony of an ordinary hilly country; but distant peaks and beautifully-wooded hill-sides are mingled with a varied and interesting foreground, while the river, with its broken current, boats, and voyagers, adds a charm of motion and life to the scene. I would advise any one whose

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business or pleasure may take him to I-chang to run up as far as the first rapids, and I am sure he will think himself well repaid.

It took us three hours to drift through I-chang gorge, which, however, looked tame after those we had passed in the morning and on the day previous. We were detained a short time at the Customs establishment in the middle of the gorge, but, on rounding "Mussulman Point" at four o'clock, I-chang and the plain of Hoo-peh were before us. The change was as great as it was sudden. What we had thought hilly before now appeared nearly flat; and the long stretch of broad river below I-chang seemed like a sea.

CHAPTER XIX.

RETURN FROM THE INTERIOR.

THE "Upper Yang-tsze Expedition," at the close of the last chapter, had just arrived in two Sz'chuan boats at I-chang; and while they are arranging for their farther conveyance in a junk, larger and more suitable to the placid waters of the lower portion of the "Great River," I will say a word or two on I-chang.

Eleven hundred statute miles up the Yang-tsze Kiang, at a point where, after coursing the fertile province of Sz'chuan, and breaking through a rugged mountainous region, that river emerges into the great plain of Hoo-peh, the situation of I-chang is one of the most important on the great highway of Middle China. Easily accessible to large steamers at all seasons of the year, and at the portal, as it were, of the more unmanageable upper waters, I-chang, when European traders push their commerce more into the western country, will probably become a great place of business as a port of transshipment. A slight alteration in " Article X." of the "Treaty of Tien-tsin," with regard to the distance to which British vessels may trade on the Yang-tsze, would encourage the building of steamers for the navigation of its upper waters, and cause another European settlement to spring up at this point, which, to say nothing of the advantages of trade, and its being the limit to which ordinary steamers can ascend, would, as a healthy and agreeable location, stand unrivalled. Thither might invalids, and those worn out by sedentary occupations, fly from the low lands of the coast. A pleasant

voyage from Shanghai, of a week or ten days' duration, would place them in a mountainous country, where they might select any scene and climate suited to their tastes and constitutions; where, amid the temperate breezes of the mountains, they might enjoy field-sports and pedestrian exercise, and still be among a European community, and within easy and frequent communication with the coast; or they might select retreats in the mountain fastnesses, where they would be shut out from the hum of business, and secure from Celestial mobs. I know of no greater change for one accustomed to life at most of our ports in China, than a residence among the mountains at I-chang.

Commercially speaking, I-chang would present the advantage I have already alluded to, of commanding the uninterrupted navigation of the river for large vessels from the coast. It is also a place past which all the valuable produce of Sz'chuan, intended for the lower provinces and the coast, must pass; and, while near the frontiers of that extensive province, is within quick communication by land with Hankow. Another great advantage of I-chang is that it would be a coaling station, boats being able to run down from the pits' mouths in a few hours with any amount of this material; and if the present coal which is brought there from about Kwei and above prove not to be of very good quality, the geological formation of the whole district of the Upper Yang-tsze gives me good authority for saying that good coal will be found by proper working. With these advantages, I-chang must become one of the most important places in the interior; and I would strongly advocate it as another port to be at once opened on the Yang-tsze Kiang. We might perhaps also propose Yo-chow, or some place on the Tung-ting Lake, nearer the tea districts of Hoonan, as equally deserving of being opened; but at any rate let us have I-chang. By the time any steamers could be built