236 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



from the eternal carrying-pgle of the Chinese coolie, but in 

 vain. No porter would part with one, and there were no 

 shops for their sale ; like most of the articles in common use 

 in China, they are all manufactured away in the homes of the 

 peasantry as necessity requires, and no capital is allowed to 

 remain locked up in stock. The pei-lo are somewhat 

 conical-shaped baskets with expanding mouths, neatly woven 

 out of split bamboo, the shoulder-straps being of the same 

 material, the whole fitting comfortably on the back and 

 enabling heavy weights, up to 250 pounds, to be carried with 

 a minimum of fatigue. Children are also largely carried in 

 them, snugly packed in an erect position. I tried likewise 

 to obtain a model of the extraordinary " wai pi-ku " junk 

 used on the Kung-tan river, and induced the proprietor of a 

 picture-shop, owned by a relative of my Chung-king com- 

 panion, to undertake the commission, advancing him five 

 dollars for the purpose. I afterwards strolled along the top 

 of the wall, the only promenade in a Chinese town where 

 every one of the five senses is not perpetually offended, and 

 regaled myself with the magnificent view up the valley of the 

 Kung-tan. This, the east wall, is built on the edge of a 

 cliff which falls away perpendicularly to the margin of the 

 rushing stream below ; the sand-flats, together with the bam- 

 boo town and adjacent junk fleet which existed here on our 

 voyage up, having entirely disappeared. Half of the city 

 enclosure seemed, as usual, to be occupied with public build- 

 ings, temples, gardens, and literary monuments, whose red 

 walls and coloured tile roofs give these cities, especially when 

 built on a steep slope, such a gay appearance from a distance. 

 The buildings were mostly in bad repair, and, as every- 

 where in these degenerate days, little used, the fine court- 

 yards being overgrown with grass and weeds. 



I tried here to find a small boat to take us on to Ichang 



