The Granite Valley 55 



marvellous contrast in the scenery, A valley, over a mile 

 in width, has been excavated, and the ruins are strewn 

 about m gigantic piles of boulders through which the now 

 narrowed winter stream winds its way in a series of small 

 rapids. The view from one of the surrounding heights is 

 an extraordinarily wild one, and one might, looking down 

 on the stony river-bed, imagine one's self rather on the 

 desolate shores of the Red Sea than in the midst of one 

 of the most fertile provinces of China. The hard gneiss, where 

 still in sight, is traversed by curious dykes of green-stone 

 and porphyry which run at right angles to the river's course, 

 the strata inclined almost to the perpendicular. This granitic 

 axis of the mountain range, through which the Yang-tse 

 forces its way, and which bears the limestones and sandstones 

 on its flanks, barely exceeds 4000 feet in height, although 

 to the south the mountains appear to rise to double this 

 height, but they have never yet been visited and measured 

 by Europeans. This stretch of river is known as the 

 " Yao-tsa-ho," and is much dreaded by the boatmen; in 

 some places piles of loose granitic rocks rise out of the 

 middle of the channel, and everywhere the unfortunate 

 trackers have to scramble up and down hills of broken rock 

 masses which would puzzle a chamois to climb. The main 

 channel is comparatively broad and deep; but the junks 

 prefer the narrower channels near the shore, where they can 

 track almost continuously. This " Yao-tsa-ho " extends for 

 about fifteen miles, until the " Tunk-Ling," as the next gorge 

 is called, is reached. Here we had a gale of wind 

 aft, and it was possible to sail up in midstream between 

 the rocks instead of being tracked up in comparative safety 

 alongshore. The Lao-ta (skipper), nothing loth to save 

 a few cash, reckoned without his host in the shape of his 

 mate, who, when ordered to hoist up the sail, remarked to 



