I go Throtigh the Yang-tse Gorges 



about six shillings per ton. It is a soft bituminous coal of 

 apparently good quality. 



On Friday, April 20th, I was up at 4 a.m., and, 

 donning a native suit of calico and a pair of straw sandals 

 much too small for me, I entered the mine. A tunnel eight 

 feet high by five feet broad, almost horizontal, but with a 

 gentle incline outwards, pierces the rock for a distance of 

 194 pai, Chinese fathom or length of five Chinese feet of 

 fourteen inches English — thus making the length of the 

 adit about one thousand English feet. In the centre a 

 wooden tramway is laid, upon which run the to-tze or coal- 

 baskets, which rest on four small iron wheels. A double 

 doorway guards the entrance, which is only opened for the 

 passage of the to-tze as they come out laden with coal, each 

 propelled by its men. We entered, pushing an empty to-tze 

 before us as a guide to keep us in the centre of the passage 

 and out of the water-channels excavated on either side. 

 The object of so carefully closing the entrance was, they told 

 me, to retain the fresh air that was being so laboriously 

 pumped in. We progressed slowly through the slush, 

 having to give way for each laden to-tze bound out, by 

 removing our empty carriage bodily off the rails so as to let 

 the other one keep its course. At length we reached the 

 head of the tunnel, at a spot where transverse galleries 

 branch off right and left, while facing us sat in pitch dark- 

 ness a solitary fanner, turning the wheel, whereby the air of 

 the tunnel was pumped into the gallery to the left, which 

 again was closed by double doors similar to those which 

 guard the main entrance. To the right were abandoned 

 galleries, now impassable owing to the caving in of the roofs. 

 Passing through the doors on our left, we scrambled along 

 the low passage, necessitating constant stooping, for nearly 

 500 yards, when we came upon the present workings. We 



