SIN-TAN RAPID 75 
hours. Later on we managed to make a short advance, 
but were obliged eventually to make fast to the bank 
just below the rapid. 
Making a start at 4.45 the next morning, it took 
nearly three hours to get against the strong current to 
the foot of the rapid. Here more trackers had to be 
engaged, and it took fifteen to get the boat through. 
I hoped to reach the Sin-tan Rapid during the day, as 
there were no bad places to pass. The wreck of a large 
house-boat was seen in the forenoon, she having come 
to grief about three days previously. 
Such wrecks are very common, and it is impossible 
to make any estimate of the number of men drowned in 
the river, but it must be very large. The thermometer 
to-day registered 85°. The Sin-tan Rapid was reached 
at 1.30 p.m., and I found that the boat would have to be 
unloaded before the ascent was attempted, not on ac- 
count of the shallowness of the river, but to make her 
tow more easily against the current, which was very 
violent, but with no actual fall that I could see. This 
afternoon a junk was wrecked, but happily no lives 
were lost. A sandstorm raged all day, and everything 
in the boat was covered with very fine sand which 
seemed to penetrate everywhere. Just before arriving 
here one of my men cut his thumb severely through 
carelessly handling a bamboo hawser. The muscles 
