Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/107

Rh gorges of the Yang-tsze is widespread. A mile or two above Ichang rise the mountain portals giving entrance to the first great gorge, and for ten days on end the traveller is borne through a wonderland of cliffs and towering pinnacles, where in some past geologic era whole mountain-ranges have been twisted and torn asunder by some terrific convulsion in the earth's surface. Nature has here assumed her grandest and most solemn garb. The pent-up waters race between sheer walls of towering rock; each turn in the winding course presents a fresh vista of magic grandeur. For us the sense of awe and gloom was emphasised by heavy masses of storm-cloud brooding over the mountain-tops and blotting out the light, while vegetation, growing wherever it found foothold among the rocks, and just assuming the vivid tints of autumn, gave colour to the scene and added by contrast to the sense of overwhelming immensity.

For the most part we are dragged by brute force against the current by the fourteen trackers at the end of a rope of plaited bamboo. When this is not possible the