44 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



to a narrow platform at the top, upon which is built a small 

 temple. After spending an hour gazing on the jagged peaks 

 all round, I got back to the causeway, not without some 

 difficulty, and retraced my steps to the Dragon King's 

 cavern, where I spent a second night. A fourteen miles' 

 walk brought me back to Ichang next day, through a lovely 

 little village, the prettiest feature in the view from Ichang, 

 The bright morning air, following on a frosty night, gave 

 this return walk a special charm. 



On another occasion I arranged a more distant trip to . 

 the "Yun wu Shan," or Cloud-mist Mountain. Having 

 slept in my boat, I landed at seven a.m. at the mouth of the 

 Ichang Gorge, and started to walk up a lovely glen that 

 falls into the main gorge, both being cut out of the lime- 

 stone, of which the region north and west of Ichang is com- 

 posed, in contradistinction to the conglomerate mountains, 

 which cover the country to the south and east. This glen 

 has a level bottom, varying in width from 50 to 200 yards, 

 entirely occupied by the bed of the stream, which flows 

 through it, and bounded throughout the first few miles, until 

 it widens out and forms cultivable bottoms, by Umestone 

 precipices, perpendicular and overhanging, about a thousand 

 feet high. The side ravines are filled with beautiful ferns 

 and evergreens. Finding that the pace of a cooUe-cade 

 (compare cavalcade) is that of its slowest component, I on 

 this occasion had picked out my best coohe, and he alone 

 followed me with my bed and food slung to the two ends of 

 the common carrying pole; the former two thick double 

 blankets, the latter two loaves of brown bread, one tin of 

 cocoa, with a tin of milk. The paths wound up another 

 ravine seemingly endless, and the mountain I was seeking 

 seemed always still twenty li (seven miles) distant. At 

 length, at three o'clock, the ravine widened out, and the path, 



