226 
[No. 3, 
Notes on the River Yang-tse-Kiang. 
gardens ; the town is surrounded by a weak looking wall, and is 
protected on two sides by the river and lake ; the others are com- 
manded by low hills near the walls ; within, the town are gardens 
extending over nearly half the space enclosed by the walls, and this 
is the case with every town on the Upper Yang-tse ; nearly all are 
built at the foot of a slope, the extent of ground enclosed having 
reference to what a town may one day become rather than to the 
available number of inhabitants to defend such a length of wall. 
At Hohia, a large village on the left bank, the river makes a sharp 
bend, and narrows from an average width of a thousand yards to 
about seven hundred ; through the narrows, the stream rushes with 
great force against the left bank, which, when we saw it, had been 
deeply cut into ; a fine wall, of very hard limestone, was in course 
of construction to protect the embankment ; in crossing the narrows, 
the lead gave, close to the village, fourteen fathoms, in mid-stream 
sixteen, and eight and a half at twenty yards from the right bank ; 
above the village, the embankment recedes from the river, until, 
at the distance of nine or ten miles up, it is fully a mile from it ; 
the land between this and the river is about fifteen feet higher than 
on its landward side ; it appears to have been built at a time when 
the river ran in a different bed from its present one ; as the river 
has retired from the embankment to its present channel, the interven- 
ing flat has become gradually raised by a succession of deposits 
of mud brought down by the annual floods, while the country 
beyond, has remained at its original level ; a road is carried along 
the top of the embankment, which is about twenty-five yards wide. 
The carriage of this part of the country is a light cart, generally 
with two, sometimes with four solid wheels ; buffaloes are used for 
draught, and small ponies for the saddle ; the large wheeled barrow, 
the same as that used in the North and in other parts of China, is 
also found here. 
About 170 miles above the junction of the Tung-ting lake with 
the Yang-tse, is the town of Shahsz’ ; it is the first place of any 
importance above Yochow, being the port of Kinchow (foo), a large 
city a mile inland ; Shahsz’ is built on the embankment on the river’s 
left along which it runs for about two miles or rather more ; on the 
whole of its river face, and in every creek, junks, some of a large 
size, were moored as closely as they could be stowed ; a mandarin 
