A Human Ant-hive 277 



only, and some two thousand workmen were employed in 

 breaking up the rock masses into manageable pieces, and in 

 then transporting the broken-up material into the whirlpool 

 bay below. This method, slow and sure, suited the Chinese; 

 but the point was not appreciably reduced before the spring 

 rise in the river arrested the work. It was an interesting 

 sight to see the busy ant-hive swarming on the point, the 

 masons in red and navvies in yellow turbans. These man- 

 aged to get through a good deal of work, although without 

 dynamite they were unable to clear away the rock below 

 the water level. A triangle, or to speak more accurately, a 

 conic section, measuring roughly 450 by 150 by 50 feet, 

 was removed, adding fifty yards to the width of the channel 

 when the river should have overflowed the excavation. 

 Three thousand pounds was the sum allotted to the work, 

 which was being expended at the rate of thirty pounds per 

 diem in wages. The Viceroy's alleged reason for pro- 

 hibiting the use of dynamite was, that in Yun-yang resides 

 the Feng-shui, or Guardian Angel of ChSng-tu, the provincial 

 capital, and that an explosion here would destroy his 

 ya-men there. Some years ago a careless boatman lit a fire 

 on a rock in mid-river above Wan-hien : this rock is the 

 Feng-shui of Pao-ning-fu in north-east Szechuan : the result 

 was the destruction of the city of Pao-ning by fire that very 

 same night. 



When, in the spring of this year, we passed up in the 

 " Leechuen," we found no less than 327 junks laid up in the 

 reach below the rapid, either waiting their turn to ascend, or 

 transhipping their cargo to fresh junks above. All boats 

 that venture to pass the rapid have to strip even to their fit- 

 tings, so as to make them as light as possible ; — that is until 

 the summer rise obliterates the fall. Coming from Yun-yang 



