34 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



immediately hidden in a thunderstorm which here burst 

 upon us. The point we were now rounding, known as 

 Opossum Point, was covered with large loose boulders, the 

 first seen, a foretaste of the mountains to come. Below this 

 spot the points consisted of true sand; higher up the 

 boulders seemed to have consolidated into conglomerate or 

 pudding-stone, large masses of which, recently undermined 

 by the water, formed dangerous rocks for boats approach- 

 ing too near the bank. This conglomerate ledge, here 

 three feet thick, lies between two strata of hard sandstone. 

 Porpoises have kept us company all the way from Shasze, 

 but they do not ascend above Ichang, being arrested by 

 the first rapid, which is situated just below. There is little 

 or no current to-day, which explains the pellucidity of the 

 water; in summer the water here varies from pea-soup to 

 chocolate. Brought up at Matung Chi (the " race " of Ma- 

 tung), having made loo li, say twenty-five miles ; in all from 

 Shasze seventy miles. 



Thursday, March "S-^th. — Off at daylight, in thick mist 

 increased by heavy dust-stonn, which rendered the scenery 

 of the Tiger Teeth Gorge (Hu-ya hsia), through which we 

 now passed on our way to Ichang, quite invisible. This 

 gorge forms a break in the last of the cross ranges, athwart 

 which the Yang-tse brealis its way from the Szechuan plateau 

 to the great Hu-peh plain. This range, precipitous on its 

 north and west flank, rises to a height of 2600 feet on the 

 right bank, one of its wall-sided peaks being crowned by an 

 apparently inaccessible Buddhist temple ; and falls away to 

 about 300 feet where it crosses the river bed. The gorge is 

 600 to 800 yards wide, and about two miles long, and is 

 situated just ten miles below Ichang. The perpendicular 

 cliffs consist of a moderately coarse conglomerate like all the 

 country hereabout, and, as towing is impossible, our crew 



