56 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



me, " He orders me to risk my all, my life, for I possess 

 nothing else ; it is well enough for him, the owner of the 

 junk, and a rich man, to put only his life in jeopardy !" — a 

 fine Gilbertian fallacy ! In this distance we passed up three 

 rapids, the only really difficult one of which was the " Ta- 

 Tung," or Otter's Cave rapid, the current of which in the 

 main channel, where it was unbroken, was ruiming seven or 

 eight knots for a distance of half a mile. We passed up 

 by a small inner channel, with a regular waterfall at the top ; 

 but with our own four trackers, and a dozen additional 

 coolies engaged at an additional cost of fourpence in all, 

 we gradually scraped through, although our progress was so 

 slow as to be hardly perceptible. With the elastic oak 

 bottom of our little craft bumping occasionally on the 

 boulders, we ascended with comparative ease ; but for the 

 large junks, that have to keep far out in the stream, the 

 surmounting this, one of the minor rapids, is a troublesome 

 business, and a whole day is well spent in its successful 

 negotiation. We passed several big junks thus toiling up, 

 our low mast and tow-line passing under theirs, and I con- 

 gratulated myself upon having put up with the discomforts 

 of a small boat, rather than spend double the time over the 

 journey in a big one. 



Our light canoe-shaped vessel seemed to suffer no harm 

 from its occasional bumping on the rocks, but the big junks 

 do not always get off so easily. We passed a cotton junk 

 bound up-stream, which only the previous day had knocked 

 a hole in her bottom at this very spot. Her crew were 

 encamped on the bank under the mat roof taken from their 

 boat, and had got out the bulk of her cargo of cotton 

 bales, and spread them out on the bank to dry, the bales 

 having been all opened, and the cotton scattered over the 

 rocks. The junk herself they had managed to bring into 



