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82 light of the difficulties lying in the way of steam navigation—statements with which I find myself quite unable to agree. The members of the Blackburn Commercial Mission ascended the stretch between Ichang and Ch'ung-k'ing in November, a time of year at which, as I have already pointed out, the real character of the rapids does not appear. Hence they reported that "the stretch between Ichang and Ch'ung-k'ing has been credited with a character which in the estimation of this mission is ill-deserved.... The terrors of the so-called rapids (sic) ... arise more from ignorance of fact and circumstance than experience." And, again, Sir Robert Douglas in a recent publication declares that "repeated proposals have been made by foreigners to clear a passage, as might easily be done by the use of dynamite." For myself, I prefer to accept the opinion of Captain Plant, at present pilot in the service of the French Government on the upper waters of the Yang-tsze, who can boast of ten years of practical experience of these waters, and who speaks