A Dangerous Path 65 



outside the exit of the gorge, I noticed the poplar-trees all in- 

 clined to the west, being grown somewhat in the form of a 

 capital S, showing that the prevailing wind, much to the 

 benefit of the ascending junks, is here, as usual, up-stream. 



From here we came to the city of Kwei-chow, a distance 

 of six miles; the channel, as is usual where the valley widens, 

 is encumbered with huge rocks and boulder-covered sand- 

 banks, forming a succession of rapids and races through 

 which we struggled, aided by the strong breeze, and crossing 

 from side to side to take advantage of the different eddies, 

 untU at last, at five p.m., we made fast to the bank opposite 

 Kwei-chow, prevented from ascending farther by a couple 

 of junks which had taken up their position here for the night, 

 while the roaring stream outside them ran too strong 

 for us to attempt to work round past them. We thus lost 

 the benefit of the strong breeze which was still blowing, 

 and had to put up with a day's work of sixty li, say fourteen 

 miles, but which, on looking back, owing to the extra- 

 ordinary interest of the journey, seemed more than ten times 

 that distance. 



Kwei-chow is a picturesque walled city, situated on a bluff 

 some 200 feet above the river, and at the mouth of a small 

 affluent ; at the back rises the mountain range, up part of 

 which its walls, which enclose many gardens and trees, creep 

 in pear-shaped outline. It looks from this distance (the 

 opposite shore) a well-built city ; but it has no trade, not a 

 single boat or junk being moored near it. From under its 

 walls, reefs of black rock run out, and the current rushes 

 past like a mill-race. Before we came to our anchorage, 

 I had been walking along the shore, following the trackers. 

 At length the towing-path rounded a smooth, almost pre- 

 cipitous rock, about 100 feet above the river level, until at last 

 the narrow footway came to an end, and the elbow of the slope 



F 



