66 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



was rounded by some ten or twenty single footsteps cut in 

 the face of the smooth limestone, just large enough for the 

 small feet of a Chinaman. I was stuck. I could not go for- 

 ward, and dared not turn round to go back ; the trackers 

 were far ahead, and the short twilight was fast merging into 

 night. I was almost in despair, when fortunately one of the 

 trackers came back to look for me. Carefully divesting 

 myself of my boots, avoiding a glance at the foaming water 

 below, and holdingthe man's hand, I soon got over; but what 

 a path for men harnessed to a tow-line to risk their necks on ! 

 The sun was very hot to-day ; though the latitude is the 

 same as Shanghai, and the altitude 500 or 600 feet greater, the 

 spring here is fully a month in advance ; the wheat is already 

 over a foot high, and the air is fragrant with the bean-fields 

 in flower. Every bit of sand left dry by the river's winter 

 fall is sown in wheat, as are many of the apparently 

 inaccessible slopes of the mountains ; and the wonder is that 

 it is not all blown away, or that any is harvested before 

 the rise now going on, at the rate of two or three feet a day, 

 overwhelms it. With regard to the Shin-tan pilots, — these 

 men, our Lao-ta tells me, earn from one to eight dollars a 

 junk, according to its size ; this includes assistant-trackers 

 for junks bound up, and no junk ventures to negotiate the 

 rapids either way without them ; they are smart, active men, 

 and are licensed by the officials. Our humble Shen-poh-tse, 

 creeping up under the bank, required no pilot, and the only 

 extra charge for ascending the Shin-tan was twenty-five cents 

 for a dozen supplementary trackers; but down-stream she 

 has to take a pilot at a cost of 300 cash — say one shilling. 

 (I am writing to the accompaniment of the roar of the rapid, 

 up which we start at daybreak.) 



Wednesday, March zisf. — Fourth day in the gorges. An 

 exciting day. We ascended two fierce rapids, the Yeh-tan 



