232 Through the Yang- is e Gorges 



this hurly-burly, the progress of the junk through the water 

 could only be detected by throwing a biscuit over the side 

 and carefully watching its slow recession. No wonder, then, 

 as the Chinese say, one junk in ten gets stranded, and one 

 in twenty totally lost each voyage. 



We drifted rapidly on; past the J'Hwang-ue ling," or 

 " Herring Mountain," and the rock-strewn reach of the 

 " Shih chia te," " Stone family pool," the " Tranquil rock," 

 the " Scholar's rapid," the " Fire-wind rapid," and into the 

 " Scissors gorge," a picturesque wooden glen some ten miles 

 above Fu-chow ; thence past the hamlet of " Sai Feng tu," 

 literally, " Rival Feng-tu," the celebrated home of the ruler 

 of Hades, through the "Black Dragon gorge," and the 

 narrows of the "Tortoise gate," and at length by the mouth 

 of the " Dragon King," we emerged in the reach at the foot 

 of which stands the important city of Fu-chow. It was now 

 three o'clock, and the usual afternoon up-river breeze, so 

 invaluable to ascending junks, had set in ; but this same 

 breeze was fatal to our further progress that day, and much 

 to my chagrin, I shortly afterwards found the junk's head 

 swung round and a berth for the night, in a spot on the right 

 bank combining all desiderata, taken up. With their weak 

 motive power, a very slight breeze interferes with the 

 steering, and as, in this complicated navigation, there is 

 danger in being caught a hair's breadth out of the proper 

 course, a head wind, in all but the straight, clear reaches 

 which are very few and far between, compels the down- 

 ward-bound junks to anchor, or rather, seeing that anchoring 

 is unknown in the Upper Yang-tse, to tie up to the bank in 

 the manner described above. On this occasion we had 

 immediately before us the dangerous right-angled turn which 

 the river takes at Fu-chow, whereby, and also owing to the 

 influx of the waters of the Chung-tan ho, now in flood, one 



