2 26 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



ledges just large enough for the support of a luxuriant 

 vegetation of cedar and bamboo. In the mouth of a small 

 lateral ravine, but perched high up on a rocky pinnacle, I 

 noticed a snug farmhouse j otherwise the gorge seemed 

 deserted, and constituted a wild break in the generally 

 continuous cultivation and smiling farms of the Szechuan 

 country. I do not estimate these hills at over twelve or 

 fifteen hundred feet above the river, which is here fully half 

 a mile wide. Everything about the Yang-tse Gorges is on 

 such a large scale that estimates of distances are not easily 

 formed ; that careful observer, Blakiston, in one or two 

 cases in which the heights he gives have since been checked 

 by actual measurement, is found to have under-estimated 

 them by fully one-third. From the deck of our junk it 

 appeared as though we were the sole occupants of the gorge ; 

 only on close inspection could I discover the upward-bound 

 junks toiling along close under the shore, and it required a 

 good field-glass to make out the gangs of trackers scrambling 

 over the rocky tow-path ahead of them. How swiftly we 

 seemed to sweep by ! in a few minutes gliding by a rocky 

 point that had occupied us nearly as many hours in ascend- 

 ing. Yet, although we were not making more than six 

 knots over the ground, it was all too fast to enjoy the 

 scenery, and I was glad that I had.already had the oppor- 

 tunity of studying it at leisure on my way up. In these 

 days of steam, how few places one has the opportunity of 

 thoroughly enjoying ! Notwithstanding the many discom- 

 forts of Chinese travel, one is, to my thinking, more than 

 compensated by its absence of hurry, at least in such regions 

 as these, where every yard is of interest, and a new picture 

 opens out at every mile. A fine waterfall tumbles over the 

 cliff on the right bank, but its murmur is lost in the noise 

 of the rapid, by which the seemingly still waters of the 



