394 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



iiiei'ce, therefore, depend on the agency of pack animals or coolies, and 

 the roads they follow are mere trails winding around the steep moun- 

 tain sides or threading the bottoms of narrow valleys, where swift 

 streams must be forded at frequent intervals. Under such circum- 

 stances it is evident that there can be but little effective traffic. Only 

 comparatively light and expensive articles can be transported long 

 distances. Around the edges of the mountain mass where the popu- 

 lous cities of the adjoining plains can be reached with one or two 

 days' travel there has been for centuries an important trade in lum- 

 ber. The mountains have now been so largely deforested, however, 

 that it is necessary to go farther and farther back into the heads of 

 the valleys to find large trees. Hence only the more expensive kinds 

 of lumber such as coffin boards — which are absolutely indispensable, 

 even to the poorer classes— can profitably be brought out. These are 

 often carried for 20 or 30 miles on the backs of coolies — a costly mode 

 of transportation. The smaller trees and brush the mountaineers 

 convert into charcoal, which they carry on their own backs down to 

 the towns along the foothills. 



Lack of transportation facilities is doubtless the chief reason why 

 the opium poppy has in the past been widely cultivated in this part 

 of China, although the practice has lately been prohibited by the 

 Government. The advantage in poppy culture was that it could be 

 carried on in small scattered fields and the product was so valuable 

 for unit of weight that it would pay for long-distance transportation 

 across the mountains. The inhabitants of the region themselves were 

 not, however, generally addicted to the use of the drug. 



The rainfall of the central mountain region is sufficient to supply 

 the many springs and tributary brooks of which the people have 

 made use in irrigation. The mildness of the climate here permits the 

 growing of rice, and by terracing the hillsides they are able to make 

 a succession of narrow curved basins, in which the aquatic crop may 

 be grown. For the cultivation of rice it is necessary that the fields 

 be completely submerged during part of the season, and so there must 

 be a plentiful supply of water. 



On the larger rivers, such as the Han and the Yangtze and their 

 chief tributaries boats are successfully used. In fact, the Chinese 

 river boatmen are so skillful in the handling of their high-prowed 

 skiffs that they navigate canyons full of rapids which most of us 

 would consider too dangerous to attempt. The descent of one of 

 these rivers is an easy although exciting experience. The return trip, 

 however, is slow and laborious, for the boats must be dragged up- 

 stream by coolies harnessed to a long bamboo rope, which has the 

 advantage of being very light as well as strong. In the many places 

 where the river banks are so precipitous that it is impossible to walk 



