18 COGGIN BROWN* MINES & MINERAL RESOURCES OF YUNNAN. 



and after that it is useless for similar reasons, though it penetrates 

 into the very heart of the land. The Mekong, Salween, and Shweli 

 need not be discussed. They flow swiftly in rocky channels 

 traversed by rapids and cataracts, liable to great floods, and often 

 at the bottom of precipitous canons into which the light of the 

 sun only penetrates for an hour or two in the day. 



The mountainous nature of the land and the inertia of the 

 government are jointly responsible for the bad and sometimes 

 dangerous condition of the roads in Yunnan. Wheeled traffic 

 is for all practical purposes non-existent, and the transportation 

 of goods is effected by the use of pack mules, bullock trains, and, 

 more rarely, porters'. The roads of Western China have been 

 abused by every traveller and writer on the land from the time 

 of Marco Polo onwards, and it is unnecessary to add to the great 

 volume of vituperation already in existence though the memory 

 of many a weary march invites one to do so. 



Zigzagging up the steep mountain sides, wandering across the 

 plains, the Chinese paved roads extend for thousands of miles. 

 The paving stones are of all sorts and sizes, and often no repairs 

 have been done since they were first laid down, so that large spaces 

 separate the stones in some places, and in others the impact of 

 countless iron-shod hoofs has in the long course of time drilled a 

 hole right through them, so that one appreciates the Chinese maxim 

 regarding the roads of the land, " Good for ten years and bad for 

 a thousand." 



On the paved mountain tracks riding is out of the question . 

 and after a shower of rain the stones become so slippery that pack 

 animals can only keep a footing with difficulty. The traveller 

 in despair often takes off his boots to avoid falling on the flat stones, 

 only to be cut by the sharp and jagged edges of the broken ones. 

 Add to this that the roads are as often as not cut along steep hill 

 sides with a precipice on one hand and a slope which may serve 

 for a landslip on the other, and the risks the merchants 

 run in carrying goods from one part of the country to 

 another may be well imagined. In the plains the tracks always 

 go around the paddy fields, never across them, and every farmer 

 uses them as waste irrigation canals into winch to turn the surplus 

 water from th e crops . Very often , in order to avoi d the paved 

 roads, earth tracks are made alongside them, but, these are only 

 available in the dry season. In the rains the overland trade is 



