198 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



foot of the cliff, by baskets running on bamboo lines leading 

 from the pit's mouth. 



We glided swiftly down the stream, our boatmen doing 

 little more than keep the boat in the centre of the current, 

 clear of the eddies and rocks at the side. We were in com- 

 pany with a small fleet of antediluvian-looking vessels laden 

 to the water's edge with drugs from the borders of Kansu 

 — rhubarb and liquorice-root. These boats are built of 

 rough planks, pegged together with tacks of bamboo ; they 

 are only constructed for the downward voyage ; arrived in 

 Chung-king, they are broken up, and their planking sold for 

 house-building. It is curiously Chinese to entrust such 

 valuable produce to such frail craft. 



The beauty of the scenery is indescribable. The ravine 

 through which the river flows offers a fresh picture at every 

 turn. The winter crops are all ripe for harvest, and every 

 slope is cultivated to the summit ; the red, perpendicular cliffs 

 which rise up in every direction are alone left bare, and form 

 a rich contrast to the surrounding vegetation. In these cliffs 

 are the square openings of the caves that formed the homes 

 of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country, looking like the 

 port-holes of a rock fortress. The present inhabitants take 

 but little interest in, and know still less about, these curious 

 vestiges of the past. They can only tell you that they belonged 

 to the Man-tze, or "savages." More recently they have 

 served as the home of the " Man yin," or " savages of dark- 

 ness," being the locality to which, until latterly, the loose 

 women of Chung-king were strictly relegated by the 

 authorities. The scaffolding, by which these caves were 

 formerly rendered accessible, has disappeared, and to explore 

 them now a supply of ropes and ladders would be needful, 

 which, imfortunately, I had no time to provide. Mr. Baber 

 has sent an elaborate account of them to the Geographical 



