126 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



certainly very impressive, and unequalled by any of the 

 many picturesque cities we have passed these last 300 miles. 

 Like Coblentz, it is situated at the confluence of a clear- 

 water river and a thick stream, the two descending together 

 a long distan.ce without mixing. The clear river is " Kung 

 t'an Ho," the only affluent of importance which the Yang- 

 tse receives between this and the Tung-ting Lake, a distance 

 of 600 miles. This river has its source in the neighbour- 

 hood of one of the feeders of that vast artery, and is navig- 

 able some 800 li, or about 200 miles, and is utilized at 

 times as a way of transit to Hankow and to Canton, when 

 the Yang-tse itself is in too violent flood for the junks to 

 navigate in safety. The boats used on this river, which is 

 about 200 yards wide at its mouth, are the most extraordinary 

 I have ever seen. The curious, fiddle-shaped boats of the 

 Poyang Lake, built for cheating the local customs' measure- 

 ment, are nothing to them. It is just as though a giant had 

 taken an ordinary junk in his two hands and wrung it a quarter 

 round, so that the stern deck is actually perpendicular, being 

 at right angles to the forward deck, into which the slope 

 gradually merges. I was told that only a boat of this shape 

 could twist through the rocks and whirlpools of the Kung 

 rapid" (t'an), from which the river takes its name of " Kung 

 t'an Ho " (River of the Rapid of Kung.) These boats are 

 called " Wai pi-ku'rh," meaning " twisting stern." The 

 only object of their peculiar shape which I could discover, 

 after a narrow inspection on board, was to bring the fulcrum 

 of the gigantic stern-sweep into a line with the keel, and at 

 the same time on to the edge of the usual raised quarter. 

 This sweep is worked from a bridge crossing the junk 

 amidships. On the perpendicular quarter-deck are rungs, to 

 enable a man to climb up if needful. They have no rudder, 

 but a second smaller sweep on the depressed corner of the 



