2i8 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



and evidently imbued with a sense of the dignity of his 

 calling; immediately behind, and in a small cabin par- 

 titioned oif from the rest, slept the skipper with his wife 

 and two children; the cabin-boy was apportioned to our 

 division. We were to start at daylight. 



Sure enough at early dawn the following morning I was 

 awoke by the skipper, who in a gruff voice requested us to 

 hurry up and get our beds out of the way without delay. 

 Though not particularly gratified at being thus rudely dis- 

 turbed in my morning's slumbers, I was consoled by the 

 thought that now at last we were really off, and that the 

 harassing delays of the last few days were at an end. Every 

 hour was of importance, as I had just eight days to catch 

 the Ichang steamer to, Hankow : this vessel makes the 

 round trip in about ten days, and if I missed this voyage I 

 should be inevitably too late for the Hankow tea season, 

 which opens about the 12th of May. Imagine, then, my 

 astonishment when, still half awake, we were hurried over 

 the side into a large sampan, and at length given to under- 

 stand that we were to return to the shore. My men having 

 all the arrangements in their hands, and, they urging me to 

 submit, I remained passive, awaiting explanations later. I 

 found we were being rowed across the basin to the rocks in 

 the centre of the river. All I could make out, as long as 

 the boatmen were present, was that the skipper did not 

 wish to be seen starting with a foreigner on board. The 

 true inwardness of the matter I afterwards discovered to be 

 this. Salt is a Government monopoly throughout the empire, 

 and privileged licensed merchants are alone allowed to deal 

 in it ; the salt-junks all carry an oflficial flag, and sail in a 

 certain routine and on fixed days; owing to the value of 

 their cargo and the danger of the navigation, they are not 

 allowed to take passengers down-stream, lest the crew, and 



