196 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



after day was slipping away, and I feared I might not reach 

 Hankow in time for the tea-season if I failed to impress my 

 native friends with my impatience to leave. So, notwith- 

 standing the blood-stains in the courtyard of the unfortunate 

 porker that had been slaughtered the night before in our 

 honour, and to which our host appealed most pitifully, 

 I regretfully took leave, having partaken only of sweetmeats, 

 cake, and wine. 



Threading our way down the narrow, winding path, which 

 led among the banks of one of the countless ravines by 

 which the land is split up, its soft sandstone sides decorated 

 with a luxuriant growth of ferns and creepers, we safely 

 reached the small village, combining fort and ferry-station, 

 of Shih chia-liang. The little village has one narrow, 

 paved street, and its houses are built on a sloping ledge, 

 the only piece of level ground at the mouth of the gully 

 being occupied by the coal depot. Here some 200 tons 

 were stored under lock and key, awaiting sale and shipment 

 down-stream to Chung-king. The water being now low, a 

 steep descent of about a hundred feet leads down to the river- 

 bank, where a few coal-barges were being loaded, with streams 

 of porters coming in coal-laden, and others carrying the coal 

 down to the river, the weight of each load being carefully 

 checked in both instances by the omnipresent steelyard. 

 The place had the busy and well-to-do aspect which seems 

 to characterize Szechuan villages. Meanwhile a boat had 

 been chartered to convey us down-stream to Chung-king, 

 our ponies returning with their mafus by a short cut on the 

 opposite bank. It was a pretty sight to see the clever way 

 in which these little ponies ascended the narrow landing 

 plank and jumped down into the hold of the ferry-boat, 

 not the least alarmed by the roaring of the rapid at the 

 foot of which Shih chia-liang is situated, These K^wei-chow 



