FOREST AND CRAG 6i 



visible from the gap but an ocean of clouds. The descent is 

 most precipitous and for the first 2000 feet we fairly tumbled 

 down. Afterwards it became more gradual and led over a 

 steep cultivated slope of red clayeysoil, making walking difficult. 

 Nowhere is this descent easy, and very glad were we all that 

 our route was down instead of up this mountain-side. At the 

 foot of the descent the road leads through a rocky defile to 

 emerge on the banks of a clear-water river some 60 yards 

 broad. Across this we were ferried to Tan-chia-tien, the village 

 we saw from near our lodgings last night. This village consists 

 of some fifty houses which are huddled together and overhang 

 the river in front and cling to the cliff behind in an extra- 

 ordinary manner. From this village a kind of long street 

 with houses scattered here and there along its length extends 

 for 2 miles to the village of Chikou, situated at the junction of 

 this river with another of almost equal size, A mile or so 

 from Chikou up the secondary stream are the salt wells of 

 Taning-ching. 



The road we struck at Tan-chia-tien is a highway leading 

 northwards to Shensi and southwards to Kuichou Fu on the 

 Yangtsze River. Hereabouts and down to Taning Hsien, 

 12 miles distant, and northwards I know not how far, the 

 cliffs are sheer to the water's edge. The road is well graded 

 and a good 6 feet broad, and has been excavated or blasted 

 from the solid rock. 



From Chikou to Taning Hsien is said to be 30 li with not 

 a house or hovel between. To cover this we with difficulty 

 engaged boats, long, narrow, lightly built affairs (Sin-po-tzu), 

 turned up at prow and stern, with no oars and steered by 

 long sweeps projected fore and aft. The current was strong 

 and rapids numerous ; aided by a freshet we covered the 

 whole distance in half an hour. The brief journey was through 

 one grand chasm, the walls of rock being sheer to the water's 

 edge with no space even for a shingle-bank to lodge. These 

 cliffs are treeless and mostly bare with here and there grassy 

 patches and clumps of delicate, graceful Bamboo [Anmdinaria 

 nitida). The road zigzags around the cliffs on the right 

 bank well above high-water mark, and every inch of it has 

 been blasted from the hard wall of rock. Stone gates and 



