76 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



street of the village, the houses being terraced up on either 

 side. Behind the houses are groves of orange, lemon, and 

 loquat, all evergreens, besides peach and plum-trees, now in 

 full bloom. Above this charming spot the gorge closes in 

 again, and leaves no room for habitation, until about six miles 

 higher up a colossal limestone ledge, backed by precipitous 

 hills, affords standing-room for the village of " Pei-shih " 

 (Back to the rock), the first place we come to in the Szechuan 

 province. It consists of a long, straggling street, perched up 

 well out of reach of the summer floods, with an imposing 

 Taoist temple in its midst. The houses are of the usual 

 flimsy brick, but stand upon a ledge of hard, smooth, bare 

 blue limestone, the inhabitants depending upon the passing 

 junks for a livelihood. Immediately below it is a narrow 

 glen, now dry, the floods from which in the rainy season have 

 thrust out a huge cone of sand and boulders, narrowing the 

 channel and forming a small rapid, which it took us over an 

 hour to surmount. The upper edge of the terrace, on which 

 the town is built, is scored in places four to six inches deep 

 with ruts formed by the fraying of the bamboo tow-lines. 

 The owner of a small drug-shop — a very poor one, but which 

 possessed a flag planted on the balustrade before the door, 

 announcing its owner to be captain of the volunteers of the 

 place (T wan-lien) — invited me into his house. After serving 

 me with the customary tea and hubble-hubble pipe, he 

 informed me that ever since the great Tai-ping Rebellion, 

 which, it must be remembered, broke out after the empire 

 had enjoyed a long peace for over 200 years, and the leader 

 of which, Hung siu chuen, was one of Mr. P. Roberts' 

 Christian converts made in Canton, the Szechuan people 

 had organized themselves into trained bands, which, said my 

 host, would render another outbreak of the kind impossible. 

 His large family, comprising four generations, stood at a 



