The Ichang Gorge 51 



The reach of the river above Ichang is about three- 

 quarters of a mile wide, and has all the appearance of a 

 mountain loch ; no sign of an outlet is visible, and as, toiling 

 against the small rapid or " Chi-pa," you approach the 

 upper end, the river seems lost entirely. Suddenly, on the 

 left, a cleft in the mountains comes in sight, and lo ! there 

 is the Great River narrowed to 400 yards, flowing slowly and 

 majestically between precipitous limestone cliffs which, in 

 the distance, seemed to close together, and to leave no 

 room between them. The view and the surprise that burst 

 upon one for the first time are indescribable, and no pen 

 can paint the beauty and impressiveness of the panorama 

 that slowly unrolled itself during the next three hours, as 

 we made our way slowly up some ten miles of the gorge to 

 our moorings for the night. The water in the gorges is 

 extremely deep (50 to 100 fathoms). Not a ripple disturbs 

 its surface, and not a sound beyond the occasional echoes 

 of the trackers' voices breaks the awful stillness. Clouds 

 enveloped the higher peaks and enhanced the gloom of the 

 chasm up which we slowly crawled. Dr. Henry, who had 

 accompanied me at the start, left me at the mouth of the 

 gorge, and I was alone — for the Chinaman can never be a 

 sympathetic companion to the European — and I rejoiced 

 that it had been my good fortune to visit the Yang-tse 

 Gorges before the coming stream of European tourists, with 

 the inevitable introduction of Western innovations in their 

 train, should have destroyed their Old-World charm. Such 

 scenery it is impossible properly to appreciate, if it has to 

 be rushed through with steam, leaving no time to study the 

 details or to fix any one picture firmly in the mind before 

 it is obliterated by the next. The photographs and drawings 

 that have hitherto been made of the Ichang Gorge fail 

 lamentably to convey any idea of the size, which is the 



