PLANT COLLECTING IN CHINA. 15 



for about a hundred miles and afford some of the most sublime and 

 awe-inspiring scenery in the world. The cliffs are of limestone, 

 often a thousand or more feet sheer. In these gorges the river is 

 narrowed to less than half its usual breadth, and the difference 

 between winter and summer level is between 60 and 120 feet. 



Between Ichang and Chungking the Chinese Gazetteer enumer- 

 ates a thousand rapids and dangerous rocks. If the journey is 

 made in winter this does not seem an outlandish estimate but in the 

 early summer, with the water 20 to 30 feet higher, many of the 

 vigorous rapids alternating with smooth stretches of river disappear 

 along with boulder-strewn shores, rocks and islets, giving place to 

 a broad and tremendous volume of water swirling seawards at the 

 rate of 7 to 10 knots per hour, forming many daugerous whirlpools. 

 It is not possible to exaggerate the sublimity and risks of the naviga- 

 tion of the upper Yangtsze. Of the vast fleet of boats which navi- 

 gate its perilous waters, 500 on an average are annually wrecked 

 and one-third of the cargo transported is damaged by water. I have 

 had my own share of accidents and have witnessed many catas- 

 trophes, but perhaps enough has been said to impress you with the 

 dangers of travelling on the upper Yangtsze. 



Overland travel: — A marked and striking feature of Central 

 and Western China is the absence of pasture-land and roads as we 

 understand the term. A main road in these regions is only 6 to 8 

 feet wide and usually in a sorry state of disrepair, whilst an ordinary 

 road is a mere sheep-track. There is nothing fitted with wheels 

 in these parts and everything has to be transported on men's backs. 



Now a word or two with respect to transport may be interesting. 

 No traveller in these regions who possesses any sense of self-respect 

 should journey without a sedan-chair, not necessarily as a con- 

 veyance but for the honour and glory of the thing. Unfurnished 

 with this indispensable token of respectability he is liable to be 

 thrust aside on the highway, to be kept waiting at ferries, to be 

 relegated to the worst inn's worst room and generally treated with 

 indignity or, what is sometimes worse, with familiarity, as a ped- 

 dling foot-pad who, unable to gain a living in his own country has 

 come to subsist on China. A sedan-chair even though it is carried 

 piecemeal is far more effective than a passport though this, of course, 

 is indispensable. 



