Fish in the Yang-tse River 267 



and of the monkeys, flocks of which attack the maize- 

 patches on the high hill-slopes in the early dawn. The 

 more precipitous peaks are the home of the " Shan-yang " 

 (mountain-goat), a sort of chamois : one or two specimens 

 have been shot by adventurous sportsmen, but none have 

 yet been bagged. 



The fish in Szechuan are small, scarce, and consequently 

 dear. The rapid sand-laden currents and rocky beds of the 

 rivers are unfavourable to their growth, and in this respect, 

 as in many others, the Upper Yang-tse presents a marked 

 contrast to the Lower River. The distinction is sharply 

 drawn at the foot of the Ichang Gorge. While in the Upper 

 River no large fish are known to exist, here in the Ichang 

 reach, shoals of porpoises may be daily seen disporting 

 themselves in the clear water, which is the characteristic of 

 the rainless winter months ; immense sturgeon are occasion- 

 ally caught, and, as is well known, the river swarms with 

 fish of every description, up to saurians even; small alli- 

 gators (Alligator sinensis) infest the lower reaches and the 

 adjoining creeks, being occasionally caught in the Wang-pu 

 off the Shanghai settlement. 



As for the cereals and economical productions of 

 Szechuan, are they not described at length in the 

 voluminous reports from our consular residents, buried 

 in those little-read, but most valuable productions, the 

 Blue-books ? Suffice it to say that nearly every food-crop, 

 including sugar and not excepting opium, flourishes in 

 Szechuan, besides an inexhaustible supply of drugs, huge 

 junk-loads of which are despatched from Chung-king 

 throughout the season, to enrich the drug stores and 

 destroy the stomachs of their customers, the dyspeptic, 

 well-to-do classes. From the millet-straw is plaited the 

 finest straw braid in the world. Tobacco of excellent 



