occupation had much truth in it you have enough to do looking after your life risks an estimate of the value of goods from by this route at f while coming up the and passing through the imperial customs amounted to f i� in the freight on cotton goods from to is estimated at f r per ton a scarcely increase in cost on every yard after a of miles chapter xiv the and fu on february th we entered the solemn twenty miles long a grand chasm from to yards in width and walled in by perpendicular cliffs feet in height with lofty mountain and then touched with snow above them the witch s mountain great is and the black gloom of a winter day clouds round the higher and the long with which the the river god for a wind with many vows and promises to pay did not it nor does the name iron coffin g ge given to a reach above where iron chains are bolted into the cliffs fifty feet above the winter level of the river for the use of the bound west cheer the situation we were two days in this den and tied up for a third on sunday near the last inhabited village in mu garden situated on both sides of a deep apparently closed by a high mountain a covered bridge connecting the two it is a romantic place quite worth the ascent of steep stone steps which form the street the houses are surrounded by orange and their dark shining foliage with a background of snow the people of this province are said to be poor hardy and industrious a respectable merchant asked if we had heard when peace was going to be made such ignorance was on this great highway of commerce some asked ours what we were doing tied up there when there was such a good wind and the reply was that they had foreign devils as passengers who though they did no work and were always eating must sleep one day in seven above this the walls of the approach again they are still of with above at great the wind box heights worn in places into colossal and singularly by means of deep the outer of which have given way two narrow on each side of the river are the boundary between and but it was not till some hours later that we passed the first village of the empire province back to the rock a long straggling street on an imposing ledge and possessing a fine temple there is a small but nasty rapid below it which took two hours to ascend while along the shore i picked up a piece of pink granite which at once raised a the people saying that a foreigner with blue or grey eyes not only sees three feet into the ground but can look inside the stones and that i had seen a jewel in this one i threw it down and they broke it open and then not finding anything said that i had spirited it out of the stone by foreign magic the current at the upper end of the witch s produced so much tedious delay that i was glad when we reached the first city in to which for a considerable distance we were along by hooks attached to the s poles opposite is a small which brings down salt from wells near ta ling a district city in boats which mr little regards as exact copies of is grey and picturesque its walls following the of the hills on which it is built fields and beautiful trees a fine temple to the god of literature in a grove of on a steep mountain feet in height and a lofty on the same peak are striking objects but the town though fairly clean has no look of prosperity and so far was toiling up the and get down from horse we reached the or or wind box the last and one of the of the great where the great river is in places to yards by walls of rock from to feet in height there are both and dangerous the presence of red as usual risk my boat was dragged up inch by inch against a tremendous current up in places where there was no for and so terrible was the straining of these poor fellows on the rough and jagged rocks that i welcomed the and fu the opening out of the chasm and our entrance upon a beautiful country through which the rolls through a valley covered even in february with all manner of crops in their green just at the mouth creating two channels � one loo feet and the other feet in width � lies a black polished square mass of rock known as the goose tail rock it was fully forty feet above the water when i went up but when i came down in june it was only just visible when it is quite covered the authorities at the city five miles above do not allow any to descend till it a remarkable rock ladder connected with early chinese military history a grand white peak which curves over the a fine temple on a cliff with gardens and � and then the almost painful on the capacity for admiring and wondering which the previous eleven days had made came to an end the scenery above the wind box though less grand is very varied the valley and the valleys for ever and the distant mountains forest covered or the spurs crowned with grand temples below which picturesque villages cluster and black beamed several many orange and every slope and level is cultivated to perfection the bright yellow of the seed blossom adding a charm to which was never monotonous after ascending some troublesome but minor much all the time by a big cargo boat with seventy 