Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/132

86 equally dangerous to steam navigation,—its high-water phase and its low-water phase. From December to March, when the river is at low water, the gorges and the reaches between the rapids are tranquil and easy, but it is precisely at this season that the rapids present their greatest difficulty. The three low-water rapids—Kong Ling, 38 miles above Ichang; Chin T'an, 44 miles above Ichang; and Hsin Lung T'an, 177 miles above Ichang—may be taken as examples. The only steamer that ever tackled the Chin T'an and Hsin Lung T'an rapids was Mr Little's Lechuen, which was little more than a steam launch, and was in point of fact hauled up the rapids in the same way as the native junk. Of the two attempts that have been made to negotiate the Kong Ling, the first ended in complete disaster and the second came within an ace of meeting with a similar fate. In the case of the Chin T'an and Hsin Lung T'an rapids there is a heavy fall in levels between top and bottom, amounting in the case of the latter to between seven and eight feet, while their danger is accentuated by powerful back-waters