134 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



long and busy suburb, the three towns together forming a most 

 imposing spectacle of animated movement on land and water, 

 backed by a magnificent amphitheatre of richly cultivated 

 and finely wooded hills, rising steeply fifteen hundred feet 

 above the water. There is no doubt that we have now 

 safely arrived at the great commerical metropolis of the West. 

 The position reminded me forcibly of that of Quebec, with 

 the difference that here the river is narrower and the hills 

 are far more lofty. Estimated population, 400,000. 



I stood a long time on one of the many rocky platforms 

 by which the stream is broken up, watching the busy gangs 

 of coolies loading and discharging the vast fleet of junks 

 laden with the mingled produce of the east, north, and west. 

 Conspicuous as they climbed up the long flights of steps 

 were files of. porters toiling under huge bales of white, 

 unpressed cotton, looking in the distance like regiments of 

 busy ants carrying their eggs. I gazed at leisure on the 

 busy scene, enjoying the novelty of being allowed to look 

 on unmolested by the crowd, as well as the contrast with the 

 stillness of the wild, natural scenery, amidst which so many 

 long days had been spent. Yet I was sorry that this must 

 necessarily be the goal of my present journeyings, business 

 requiring me to be back in Hankow in the following month. 

 The farther one travels, the farther one wants to travel. 



Szechuan, the westernmost and at once the richest and 

 the largest of the eighteen provinces, has an area of 167,000 

 square miles, being little less than that of France, and is 

 credited with a population of thirty-five millions.* The 



* Such was the area of the province as drawn in the maps of twenty 

 years back. Latterly, the Chinese have added large stretches of the 

 Tibetan border behind and beyond the great mountain wall to the 

 administrative region of Szechuan, so that to-day (1898) the province 

 is said to comprise 220,000 square miles, and 40,000,000 inhabitants. 



