to go inside the town. Now all
is changed; the China Inland Mission has a station here, and I went
about freely. But I did not see much of Kwei-fu, as I preferred to enjoy
that Paradise from afar; so we pulled a little way downstream, tying up
near some maize-fields in which I promptly got really lost, so tall and
thick was the growth.

The next morning dawned clear, and the lao-pan declared we could start,
as the water was falling, but he professed unwillingness to take me
through the dreaded Hei Shi Tan, or "Black Rock Rapid," near the
western end of the first gorge; so I carried two two-carrier chairs for
myself and the interpreter, paying one thousand cash for thirty li. At
starting, the road made a bend away from the river, passing through a
succession of hamlets, the homes of the trackers. Leaving my men at a
tea-house I walked on, following a well-made path which led me finally
into the White Emperor's Temple, beautifully set on the very edge of an
angle of the cliff, affording wonderful views down the gorge. It was
clean and light, and the priests who came to greet me in the usual
kindly Buddhist fashion had rather nice faces. It was a place to dream
away a glorious day. At our feet the rippling water just revealed the
dreaded Goosetail Rock, now almost submerged, but in winter standing
like a sentinel forty feet tall at the mouth of the gorge; and over our
heads towered, on both sides the narrow waterway, grey vertical cliffs,
fifteen hundred to two thousand feet high. I hated to leave, but as I
had plainly lost my way there was nothing to do but go back and seek to
overtake the men who were pounding along on the right path, trying to
come up with me.

It is here that the great Szechuan road begins, a pathway galleried into
the solid rock for the whole length of the gorge at about one hundred
and fifty feet above the winter level of the river. It is a fine piece
of road, the gift, I believe, of a rich Kwei-chou merchant. The
surprising thing, of course, is not that it is good--the Chinese have
built many good roads--but that it is new. At present it stops at the
Szechuan frontier, but there is talk of extending it across Hupeh.

The day and a half that I spent in going through the gorges of the
Yangtse were the most exhausting part of my whole trip; from the mere
strain of seeing and feeling, one's senses were all the time on the
rack. Scenes of overpowering savagery and grandeur that held one
spellbound, w