YEH-TAN BAPID 77 



On the 31st, after a most uneasy night, a start was 

 made at 7,30 a.m. It was a rainy morning, and the 

 trackers had hard work to get through the Me-tan 

 Gorge. The diffs liere are 150 feet high. Stopped at 

 Kwei, and here, to avoid hiring extra men so often to 

 help through the rapids, I engaged three more per- 

 manently. There are many bad places about here, and 

 at certain seasons, when the river is high, a very danger- 

 ous rapid, in which many lives are lost. Last year the 

 mail boat was wrecked, all the mails lost, and two men 

 drowned. There was no wind all day, and the trackers 

 had hard work. 



Ajyril 1. — Started at 6 a.m. and found the current 

 very strong. At 9 a.m., after three hours' work, I found 

 that we had only made fifteen li. The Yeh-tan Eapid was 

 reached at three in the afternoon. It was not very bad 

 in the present state of the river, but is reported to be 

 dangerous at certain times. The current is always 

 strong. Half an hour afterwards another short rapid 

 was reached, and here the river was certainly narrower 

 than I had ever before seen it. Though the wind 

 was favourable, it took thirty men to tow the boat 

 up against the strong current. Pa-tung-hsien was 

 reached at 7.30 p.m. It is situated on the right bank 

 of the river, and was, by my captain's statement, 360 

 li from Ichang. Here the boat was made fast for the 



