114 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



course, it enters into nobody's head to repair anything now- 

 adays. If you ask why " the stitch in time " is not taken, you 

 get the same answer in each of the eighteen provinces, viz. 

 this : that the emperor, meaning the government, has no 

 money, and the old public spirit of the many wealthy 

 grandees seems totally to have died out. All over the 

 country you see scattered large houses, the homes of the 

 gentry, and so-called Literati. Of the buildings, you see 

 nothing but the four blank walls and a heavy, closed door ; 

 and their inmates seldom emerge, but spend their time in 

 selfish idleness, managing, however, their incomes with 

 frugality. This is the class opposed to all progress, which 

 stirs up the otherwise indifferent masses against the foreigner. 

 I confess that I loathe the bespectacled Chinaman, whenever 

 I meet one, with his rude stare. The civility we meet with 

 in travel is almost entirely confined to the lower and middle 

 classes. 



Not long after rounding this point, we recrossed the 

 river, here three-quarters of a mile wide, and, tracking under 

 some wooded sandstone cliffs, arrived at the city of Chung- 

 chow, which is built immediately above them, and thus 

 raised on a ledge loo to 150 feet above the river. This 

 city is remarkable for the number of temples and pavilions, 

 surrounded by fine trees, which give it a picturesque aspect, 

 apart from its beautiful setting in a steeply-sloping amphi- 

 theatre of groves of tall bamboo and wooded hills. The walls, 

 as usual, run back, and enclose a lot of waste land. Rounding 

 a bend above the city, the river widens out, and the hills on 

 either side enclose a lake-like expanse. The scene is very 

 beautiful. During the quarter of an hour our crew devote 

 to their mid-day meal, at which time the boat is moored 

 alongside the bank, I ascended one of the many well-nigh 

 endless flights of stone steps which on these steep hills 



