58 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



when the boat would drift back on the rocks before it was 

 freed again ; but we managed to start ahead again just in 

 time to avoid incurring serious damage. 



I spent most of the day ashore, in light flannels and pith 

 hat, and found clambering over the rocks in the wake of the 

 trackers at times a serious matter. Part of the day I walked 

 along the right bank, on the upper path clear above the 

 river's summer level, and on terra firma, distant a quarter 

 of a mile inland from the present shore, and so escaped the 

 boulders and sand-hills, which, although I was at an eleva- 

 tion of two hundred feet, entirely concealed the water of the 

 river from view. The aspect as thus seen was that of a vast 

 desert valley filled with loose piles of rocks enclosed in 

 barren sandbanks. The peasants here carry everything in 

 a bamboo crate on the back, held in position by bamboo 

 straps across the shoulders ; and it is a relief to be rid of 

 the eternal carrying-pole on which the Chinese sling all 

 their burdens in the Eastern provinces. One man I met 

 was loaded with a huge sack containing seed of the T'ung, 

 or Dryander (the varnish tree), weighing 220 catties (300 

 lbs.), with which he was merrily climbing the steep ascent. 

 At sunset we rowed across to the left bank, rounded the last 

 rapid-making point, and moored in a quiet bay at the 

 entrance to the " T'ung ling hsia," the " Pierced Mountain " 



I went ashore, and gazed into the mysterious black-look- 

 ing cleft we are to pierce to-morrow, not without an eerie 

 feeling at the thought of being shut up in these wild valleys, 

 struggling with the inexorable water, for another fifteen or 

 twenty days. 



On a ledge of the steep rise I ascended to get a view of 

 the gorge before us was built a row of five small towers, a 

 series of which, at intervals of about every three miles, are 



