22 Through the Yang-tse Gorges. 



issues from the mountains below Ichang, are a notable 

 product of, and peculiar to, the Yang-tse valley. They 

 grow to a height of fifteen to twenty feet, and form the 

 building material and fuel of a vast population. At some 

 villages were four-wheeled wooden trucks, the primeval 

 model of the modern railway truck whose method of con- 

 struction they closely foreshadow, the wheels solid and 

 below and within the frame of the truck, the axles revolving 

 with the wheels. In the lower parts of the plain sledges are 

 employed to convey produce over the marshy ground, much 

 as the Samoyedes drive their sleighs across the Siberian 

 tundras in the short Arctic summer. All alike are loaded 

 with reed bundles, some are pushed by men, others drawn 

 by the patient water-buffalo across the flats. Arrived at the 

 water's edge, these reeds are placed upon pairs of flat-boats, 

 of which we meet many descending the stream, looking like 

 floating haystacks. All one morning immense flocks of 

 wild-fowl passed overhead on their flight to the north ; this 

 being the first fine day, they seem to be all starting for their 

 summer quarters. They rose from the lake on our right, 

 and in a minute were out of sight, m "3kj jifl 



In Shan si there is a city called Ten men Kwan (Wild- 

 goose Gate Barrier), so named because the wild-fowl pass 

 over and through the town in which this gate is situated, 

 and when the gates are shut the wild geese settle and wait 

 for them to be opened before passing. This occurs both on 

 their northward flight in the spring and on their southward 

 flight in the autumn. For this reason, and their supposed 

 conjugal fidelity, the Chinese will not kill or eat them, their 

 intelligence being almost human. This story, my companion, 

 a native of the place, insists upon being literally true. He 

 is confirmed by our cook, also a Shansi man, who neglects 

 his cooking to reassure my unbelief. 



