A Naturalist in Western China, with Vasculum, Camera, and Gun Book

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: It has been mentioned that the most difficult stretch of the Middle Yangtsze was that between Ichang and Wan Hsien. This is the region of the world-famous Yangtsze Gorges. Five in number, these gorges extend from the immediate west of Ichang to Kuichou Fu, a distance of about 150 miles. Throughout this stretch the river flows between perpendicular walls of rock, is narrowed to a third or less of its usual width, and becomes in consequence very deep. Soundings taken by the British gunboats in their ascent in 1900 gave 63 fathoms of water in two places, and this when the water at Ichang was rather less than 6 feet above zero mark ! The cliffs, composed largely of hard limestone, are 500 to 2000 feet or more high, and commonly 500 to 1000 feet or more sheer. The scenery hereabouts is savagely grand and awe-inspiring. Foreign maps without exception give the name of Yangtsze kiang (variously spelt) to this magnificent river. So far I have never met a Chinese to whom this name is intelligible. I have read that the name denotes " Son of the Ocean," and is applied to the section between Wuhu and the sea. This may be so, I have no knowledge on the point. Many local names are given to stretches of this river, but from Sui Fu, in western Szechuan, to its mouth it is universally spoken of by Chinese as the Ta kiang (Great River), occasionally it is rendered Chang kiang (Long River), or simply Kiang, meaning The River. West of Sui Fu it is called the Kinsha Ho (River of Golden Sands); the Chinese do not consider this the main stream, but regard the Min (Fu) River as the principal. They recognize that the Kinsha has the larger volume, but it is navigable only for some 40 miles and then loses itself in wild and barbarous regions. The Min, on the other hand, is navigable to Chengtu, some aoo m...Read More