71 



CHAPTER VI 



THROUGH THE GORGES OF THE YANG-TZE 



Captain and crew of boat — Trackers — Stores taken — Start up the river — 

 Ta-tung Rapid — Life-boats — Wreck passed — Sin-tan Eapid — An 

 anxious night — Me-tan Gorge — Kwei — Yeh-tan Rapid — Pa-tiing-hsien 

 — Wild rose — Absence of birds — Wu-shan Gorge — Fung-sien Gorge — 

 Accident in a rapid — Striking scenery — Chinese coffins— Road mak- 

 ing — Brme springs — Quei-chow-fu — Examination of passports — Trade 

 of the place — Escort — Dog overboard — Bad rapid — Riverside villages 

 — Wan-hsien — Opportmiity to send letters — Orange trees — St. 

 George's Island — Lnng-chan. 



The boat being now ready, my next consideration was 

 to get a captain and crew. The former I succeeded in 

 getting through the Commissioner of Customs, and he 

 stayed with me for two years, proving himself to be a 

 good man and very capable of taking charge of the 

 boat in the most dangerous places. To him I left prin- 

 cipally the selection of the crew, which consisted of 

 eiofht boatmen and eio-ht trackers. The last have 

 severely hard work going up-river, and dangerous 

 work too. Paths, perhaps a hundred feet above the 

 water and barely eighteen inches wide, are often all he 

 has to work upon, and in such places, if the boat should 



