122 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



vanity," etc. ; the whole arrangement of the zig-zag path re- 

 minding me of the path adorned with the stations of the Cross 

 such as is often to be seen in Roman Catholic countries. 



We passed through the city, which is a poor place with 

 low walls and gates, and the usual crowded Chinese streets, 

 filthy in fine, and impassable in wet weather ; then to our 

 boat across the usual long, steep sandbank, covered with 

 a temporary bamboo town, which is moved up higher and 

 higher as the river rises. I was followed by the customary 

 crowd, for whose benefit I sat on the bows of the boat 

 while delayed waiting for the relief Ting-chai (messenger). 



We got away at nine a.m., literally threading our way 

 through a huge reef of rocks, which extends across the river 

 just above this city. On emerging from this labyrinth, I was 

 not a little surprised to see on a bluff, separated from the 

 town by a lofty, almost perpendicular, sandstone hill, the walls 

 of another city, with the usual gates, crowned by handsome 

 two-storied pavilions or guard-houses, its walls enclosing a 

 large area of highly-cultivated ground and a few, possibly 

 fifty, scattered houses, the intended yam^ns or residences of 

 the officials. This city without inhabitants might, I at first 

 thought, have been buUt for the mysterious Son of Heaven 

 and his shadowy subjects, from whose presence F^ng-tu has 

 acquired so great distinction. I was informed, however, 

 that Feng-tu-ChSng proper having been entirely washed 

 away in the terrific flood of 1870, the then magistrate " Ma " 

 had built this new city at a safe height above the river, and 

 had ordered the surviving inhabitants to remove to it. This 

 they refused to do, preferring the risk of inundation to the 

 inconvenience of having to carry their daily supply of water 

 up a height of two hundred feet. They appealed to Peking ; 

 and it having been discovered that out of a total cost of 

 ^^250,000 Ma had embezzled ;^So,ooo (his real object in 



