Tracking up an Affluent 19 



we turned to the right and made our way painfully up stream, 

 past Hanyang to Siao-ho-kou, thirty li (about seven miles 

 distant), the spot where we quit the main river to ascend 

 another affluent. This thirty li occupied six hours' poling 

 and rowing, the almost continuous line of Hunan timber 

 and bamboo rafts in process of unloading along the banks 

 compelling us to proceed against the full force of the 

 current, which from half a knot, its speed on the day of my 

 arrival in Hankow (14th February), had now increased to 

 about two knots, the river having risen two feet in the 

 interval above its then level, which was the lowest of this 

 winter, and some fifty feet below the height attained in the 

 summer freshets. Little is to be seen in this reach, nearly 

 a mile in width, beyond the outlines of a few distant hills 

 rising above the low horizon, the near view of the country 

 being totally impeded by the lofty mudbanks, in many 

 places absolutely perpendicular, by which the river is now 

 enclosed. The stream we enter at Siao-ho-kou drains one 

 of the numerous chains of shallow lakes which line the 

 central and lower stretches of the Yang-tse's course. These, 

 in summer, form one vast expanse with the river itself — but 

 in winter are separated from it by wide stretches of alluvial 

 land on which is grown winter wheat — and are connected 

 with the river by rapid winding streams, through which the 

 mud-laden Yang-tse flows up in summer, and down which 

 the pellucid lake water, after having deposited its silt, drains 

 off in winter. Into one of these affluents, or as they are 

 called by our own navigators, creeks, we now entered. It 

 was of an even width of about eighty yards, and at the time 

 ten feet deep, and running with a current of five to six 

 knots, against which we were painfully towed, making four 

 miles in as many hours, when, heavy rain coming on, we 

 hitched up to the bank for the night, close to an isolated 



