Sources of the Yang-tse 259 



the sea, which the Mongols appear to have given to the 

 river. 



We thus ascend by a series of wide steps, well described 

 by the Chinese as " Men-ka'rh," or thresholds, and over 

 each of which flows one of the famous rapids — " effrayantes 

 cataractes," as they are termed by the worthy Pfere Amand 

 David, the celebrated naturalist — but at the same time 

 rapids amenable to steam power in the opinion of the few 

 other Europeans who have ascended them. These steps 

 lead us by way of the great gorges, cut through the lime- 

 stone ranges, which bound Szechuan on the east and shut 

 in its basin from the wide plain of " Hukwang " (Hu-peh), 

 the province of " Broad Lakes," which begins in the level 

 country immediately below Ichang. 



If we turn to a map of Indo-China, we are at once struck 

 with a peculiarity in the Yang-tse, as distinguished from the 

 other great rivers, which, together with it, take their rise in 

 the eastern edge of the Thibetan plateau. Four rivers, the 

 Yang-tse, the Salween, the Meikong, and the Irrawaddy, 

 here start seawards. All four in the early part of their 

 courses flow together in deep parallel ravines running north 

 and south, but the three latter alone continue to follow the 

 prevailing lay of the mountain ranges, and persevere in 

 their southward course to the Indian Ocean and Cochin 

 China Sea. The Yang-tse or the Murui-Ussu (Blue Water), 

 as the river is designated by the Thibetans, and which is 

 called lower down, where it flows through Western Szechuan, 

 " Kin-sha Kiang," i.e. " Gold-dust River " by the Chinese,— 

 behaves differently. After accompanying its less vigorous 

 neighbours down through nearly ten degrees of latitude, 

 upon reaching the vicinity of Talifu in Yiiiman, it suddenly 

 recurves northward, abandons its associates, and strikes out 

 a course of its own, athwart transverse rows of mountain 



