248 Notes on the River Yang-tse-Kiang. [No. 3, 
above Hankow, but until the floods subside, they cannot move much 
about the country in the vicinity of the river. 
The mandarins, as far as we could see, threw no obstacles in the 
way of our expedition : excepting at Chung-king, we were every- 
where most civilly received ; the authorities were curious to know 
what we were really about, and the mandarins and soldiers sent with 
us, though ostensibly a guard of honour, were more probably for the 
purpose of reporting on our proceedings, and it is probably well 
known, long before this, at Pekin that the river has been surveyed 
and soundings taken as far as Ping-shan ; I attribute our failure to 
penetrate into Thibet to no hostility on the part of the authorities, 
but to the impossibility of obtaining people to accompany us through 
a country where they had a very good chance of having their throats 
cut ; the Viceroy of Sz’chuan is the governor of Thibet, and is said 
to be well affected towards foreigners ; he is a brother of the newly 
made minister for foreign affairs at Pekin, and resides at Chingtu. 
Some time back there was some talk of attempting a route into 
western China hy Burmah ; the Yang-tse seems to me to be the 
preferable route in every way ; it is most likely navigable for country 
boats a long way above Ping-shan, and the conveyance of goods by 
land across such a hilly country as Yunnan would be difficult and 
expensive. 
As we descended we found the river very much risen since we pass- 
ed up ; in the gorges below Quaichow the rapids had almost disap- 
peared ; two bad places occurred below Shan-tow-pien, but no others ; 
the stream ran, except in these places, six and seven miles an hour. 
Below Shi-show the river banks were much flooded, and it would 
be difficult, when the river is high, for ships to keep in the channel, 
there being nothing to mark the bank ; looking towards the Tung- 
ting lake there was a clear horizon, the view being broken only 
by trees and half submerged villages standing out of the water. 
I regret being unable to add more to the very slight knowledge 
possessed of the interior and west of China ; whenever the rebels are 
put down, and not till then, a great amount of trade ought to be 
carried on with the west, and our knowledge of this most interesting 
country will increase ; under a good government the Chinese have 
the makings of as fine a nation as any under the Sun, but, as far at 
least as the West is concerned, we must for the present rest satisfied 
with the little that is known of them. 
