YHH-TAN RAPID 77 
On the 51st, after a most uneasy night, a start was 
made at 7.30 a.m. It was a rainy morning, and the 
trackers had hard work to get through the Me-tan 
Gorge. The cliffs here are 150 feet high. Stopped at 
Kwei, and here, to avoid hiring extra men so often to 
help through the rapids, I engaged three more per- 
manently. There are many bad places about here, and 
at certain seasons, when the river is high, a very danger- 
ous rapid, in which many lives are lost. Last year the 
mail boat was wrecked, all the mails lost, and two men 
drowned. There was no wind all day, and the trackers 
had hard work. 
April 1.—Started at 6 a.m. and found the current 
very strong. At 9A.M.,after three hours’ work, I found 
that we had only made fifteen li. The Yeh-tan Rapid was 
reached at three in the afternoon. It was not very bad 
in the present state of the river, but is reported to be 
dangerous at certain times. The current is always 
strong. Half an hour afterwards another short rapid 
was reached, and here the river was certainly narrower 
than I had ever before seen it. Though the wind 
was favourable, it took thirty men to tow the boat 
up against the strong current. Pa-tung-hsien was 
reached at 7.30 p.m. It is situated on the right bank 
of the river, and was, by my captain’s statement, 360) 
li from Ichang. Here the boat was made fast for the 
