Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/131

Rh direction has been made, points rather to a conclusion in an opposite sense; and indeed, to quote the opinion of Captain Plant once more, these attempts to run commercial steamers, "abortive as they were, sufficed to demonstrate that steamers of necessarily high speed, and of sufficient carrying capacity to enable them to pay, were quite impossible."

The rapids qua rapids do not by any means constitute the only obstacle to navigation, as is too generally supposed by those who have not thought it necessary to probe very deeply into the question before dogmatising upon it. It is its immense diversity of phase that renders the Yang-tsze so formidable a river. During November, April, and May, the two periods of the year between high and low water when the river may be said to be asleep, navigation by light-draught powerful steamers may be undertaken with a certain degree of safety, and it has been during these months that such steamers as have made the passage have done so. But during the remaining nine months of the year the river presents two widely different phases, each