ClIAP. XI. 
MOUNTAIN-PASS. 
178 
it. Just before we arrived at the top the road was so 
steep that even Chinese travellers get out of their chairs 
and walk, a proceeding unusual with them on ordinary 
occasions. From the foot of the range to the pass at 
which we had now arrived the distance was twenty le, 
or about five miles. 
This pass is a busy thoroughfare. It connects the 
countries of Fokien with those of Kiang-see, and is the 
highway, through the mountains, from the black-tea 
districts to the central and northern provinces of the 
Chinese empire. Long trains of coolies were met or 
overtaken at every turning of the road. Those going 
northward were laden with chests of tea, and those 
going south carried lead and other products for which 
there is a demand in the tea country. Travellers in chairs 
• were also numerous, some going to, and others returning 
from, the towns of Tsong-gan-hien and Tsing-tsun, and 
the surrounding country. Whether I looked up towards 
the pass, or down on the winding pathway by which I 
had come, a strange and busy scene presented itself. 
However numerous the coolies, or however good the 
road, I never observed any two of them walking abreast, 
as people do in other countries ; each one followed his 
neighbour, and in the distance they resembled a colony 
of ants on the move. 
At every quarter of a mile, or sometimes less, there is 
a tea-shop, for the refreshment of those who are toiling 
up or down the mountain. We frequently stopped at 
these places on our way, and refreshed ourselves with a 
cup of the pure bohea on its native mountains. During 
the ascent I walked nearly all the way, being anxious to 
