36 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



Called foreign settlement. Under the conglomerate ledges 

 of this, the left bank, which have been partially undermined 

 by the river, house innumerable beggars, whose fires, made 

 for preparing their evening rice, give a weird aspect to the 

 scene as viewed in the darkness from the sandbank beneath. 

 These snug nooks are not, however, free from danger, for 

 last winter a large slab of conglomerate toppled over, crush- 

 ing eight unfortunates beneath it. 



I landed at four p.m., having made seventy li since day- 

 break, say eighteen miles, making, eighty-eight from Shasze 

 in three days — a fast boat passage.* 



* August, 1898. — In 1893, when I made this journey, no steamer had 

 attempted to run between Hankow and Ichang in winter, and hence 

 I had to spend seventeen days over a journey which is now accom- 

 plished in three days. In 1894 I put a small 200-ton twin-screw boat 

 on the line, "Y-ling," which ran regularly, winter and summer, 

 between the two ports until crowded out by the four large vessels of 

 American type which now control the trade. 



