Chapter I: Bowes (1)

Next to the Volga, the Danube is the largest river in Europe, and for volume of water and commercial importance it far exceeds that river. It is estimated that the Danube carries more water to the sea than all the rivers of France.

The river rises at the head of a pleasant little valley high up in the mountains of the Black Forest; coming tumbling down the rocks a tiny stream of clear water, and, gathering strength and volume from numerous springs and rivulets, it cuts a deep channel into the rich soil and dances gaily along, presently to be joined by the Brigach and its twin-sister, the Brege, which rise about ten miles further to the south. These are the highest sources of the mighty River Danube, the great water highway of Europe, celebrated for ages in legend and song and in ancient and modern history for important military events, and, in its flow of nearly 2,000 miles to the Black Sea, unfolding the most remarkable panoramas of natural beauty known to the geographer; whilst on its banks may be found groups of the most interesting nationalities of the world.

Donaueschingen, a tidy little town in the Grand Duchy of Baden, is sometimes called the source of the Danube. It is situated about a mile and a half below the point where the Brigach and the Brege join the river, which from this point is called the Donau or Danube, and it is the head of the navigation for small boats on the upper river. Between here and Ulm there are twenty-one weirs and dams, and many pleasant villages, pretty little towns, ruined castles, and princely residences; amongst the latter may be named Hohenzollern, near Sigmaringen, the seat of the Imperial family of Prussia. The scenery in the locality of the castle is of great beauty, and the town, pleasantly situated on the banks of the river, has a charming appearance.

The river below Sigmaringen flows through a broad, fertile valley, and with a quicker current, as the banks have been partially canalized; and small towns, with names of wondrous length and ponderous sound, such as Munderkingen, Kiedlingen, Reichenstein, etc., suggest places that are or have been of great importance. In the distance the great tower of the Cathedral of Ulm is seen rising up out of the low horizon. Ulm is a great military stronghold, and the old town a maze of narrow, crooked streets. The Cathedral is said to be next in size to that at Cologne, and is a fine specimen of Gothic architecture, with the highest stone tower in the world.

Below Ulm several smaller towns are passed before reaching Ratisbon, a city of 40,000 inhabitants, famous for many historical events. The Cathedral of Saint Peter is one of the architectural glories of Germany. Freight steamers, barges, tugboats, and passenger steamers abound on this part of the river. Long flat boats sixty feet long, such as we see on the Rhine, pass down to the Lower Danube, laden with grain, timber, etc.

Linz, with its 500,000 inhabitants, is an interesting town; and the river scenery, between here and Vienna, is said to rival the Rhine scenery, the hills being more varied in outline and the slopes richer in verdure.

At Vienna the river is more crowded still, and is crossed by some fine road and railway bridges; and many show sights are here, such as cathedrals, historical buildings, etc., and more than a fair share of _cafés_, theatres and music-halls. In this respect it rivals Paris, and, some say, exceeds it in wickedness.

After leaving Vienna, Hainburg, Kieben and Presburg (with its 50,000 inhabitants), where the Hungarian kings have for ages been crowned, are passed; then Komorn, and through the fertile plains of Hungary to Buda Pesth, a beautiful, prosperous city, with a population of 500,000. It is said that the extensive quays facing the river and the imposing buildings are the finest on the whole course of the Danube. Lower down the river the inhabitants on either bank show distinct traces of Magyar descent.

And now leaving the Hungarian territory for Servia, Belgrade with its great fortress comes in sight. Many parts of the city are Turkish in appearance, and the inhabitants are a mixture of Hungarians, Turks and Servians.

About sixty miles below Belgrade the river leaves the Hungarian plains, and at Bazias the chief hindrances to the navigation of the Danube begin and extend to Sibb, a distance of about eighty-two miles. The obstructions may be divided into four sections, viz:--No. 1. The Stenka Rapids; No. 2. The Kozla Dojke; No. 3. The Greben Section; and No. 4. The Iron Gates. The first named rapids are about 1,100 yards long; nine miles lower down the second section--about one and a half miles long--begins, and the river is narrowed from about 1,000 yards in width to about 300 and in some places 170 yards. These rapids are caused by rocks in the bed of the river, some of which are almost dry at low water, extending nearly across it, and causing sudden alterations in the currents and dangerous whirlpools and eddies.

At Greben, four miles lower down, there were formidable obstacles to be overcome, and some of the heaviest work in the undertaking had to be faced; for at this point a spur of the Greben Mountain juts out into the river, and suddenly reduces its width at low water. When the snow and ice in the upper reaches of the river melt, or in heavy rain, the river rapidly rises, and, being blocked by these obstacles, causes damaging floods in the fertile valleys of Hungary.

Below the Greben rapids the river widens out to about one and a half miles, and passing the cutting and training walls at the rapids of Jucz enters the Kazan defile, which is said to be the most picturesque part of the Lower Danube. The cliffs, of great height, approach nearer and nearer to each other, until the river is contracted to 120 yards wide.

Passing through this dark and sombre defile into the valley of Dubova, it widens to 500 metres; the mountains again approach and reduce the width to about 200 yards. The depth at these straits varies from ten metres to fifty metres. It was through this defile that Trajan, nearly 2,000 years ago, made riverside roads and towing paths in continuation of the small canals and waterways to evade the rocks and currents and to facilitate the transport of his armies and military trains for the Roman campaigns in Central Europe. The ruins of these works are a proof of the great labour expended upon them, and also of the skill in engineering possessed by the Romans in those days. The tablets engraved on the rocks, still in part visible, commemorate their heroic deeds.

Following our course down the river, at ten kilometres from the Kazan, we come to Orsova, a rather important place of call for steamers and trading-vessels; and, now that the river is navigable for larger vessels, this place is destined, from its railway communications, etc., to become a great trading centre.

At a distance of eight kilometres from Orsova, the Iron Gate, situated between Roumania and Servia begins, and is for a length of about three kilometres the largest and most dangerous obstacle on the Lower Danube. The rocks in the channel impede the current, forming dangerous eddies and cataracts.

The Prigrada Rock rises above low water with a width of 250 metres and a length of about two kilometres, stretches in a crooked line across the river to the Roumanian shore, with a narrow channel, through which vessels of light draught only can be navigated with difficulty. The river, pouring over this rock, forms dangerous whirlpools and cataracts, requiring the greatest watchfulness, care, and experience on the part of the navigator to overcome the dangers of what has well been called “The Iron Gates.” Hundreds of steamers and vessels have been wrecked in attempting this dangerous passage.

Like many other great projects many schemes had been proposed and plans for carrying them out by different authorities had been considered, but nothing definite was done until in 1888, the Hungarian Government, under rights conferred upon it by the Berlin Treaty of 1878, and the London Treaty of 1871, undertook the work of construction and administration under the conditions of the treaties which gave them the power to levy tolls on trade ships for covering the expenses of the works.

The ceremony of the inauguration took place on the 27th of September, 1896, when the Emperor of Austria, King Charles of Roumania, and King Alexander of Servia, with an immense gathering of bishops, generals and diplomatic representatives, etc., met at Orsova, and proceeded through the Iron Gates and the beautiful and romantic Kazan Pass with a procession of six vessels, which included a monitor and torpedo boat, and accompanied by a continuous discharge of artillery and the loud huzzas of the immense gathering of soldiers, visitors and inhabitants.

Below the Iron Gates the river broadens out and the scenery is tame and uninteresting, for the vast plains of Roumania extend from the foot of the hills here to the shores of the Black Sea, and the maritime and commercial aspects of the surroundings begin to manifest themselves--the river becomes more crowded with craft of all kinds as we approach the towns on the Lower Danube.

We pass Widin, and, lower down, Sistova where, in the Russo-Turkish war, the Russians crossed the river to Plevna and the Balkan passes. Thirty-five miles lower down we reach Rustchuk, the most important Bulgarian town on the river, and fast becoming a great emporium of trade, being on the main line of railway to Constantinople, _viâ_ Varna.

We then pass Silistria and approach the longest railroad bridge in the world. This bridge crosses the Danube below Silistria, and carries the railway from Kustendji on the Black Sea into Roumania.

Braila, 125 miles from the mouth of the river, is the chief port for the shipment of produce, etc., from the grain-growing regions of Roumania and Northern Bulgaria. Here are extensive docks, grain elevators, and thousands of men of all nationalities engaged in loading steamers and sailing vessels from all countries. The British flag is everywhere present. As a commercial port the place is fast outstripping its neighbour, Galatz, fifteen miles lower down.

From Galatz to the sea, the navigation of the river, the dredging, removing of obstacles, levying of tolls, etc., is controlled by an International Commission established by treaty in 1878, since which date great improvements have been made, chiefly in the lower reaches and the Sulina mouth of the river, by the construction of groynes, revetments and cuttings to avoid the bends, and constant dredgings by powerful dredgers are carried on.

THE NIGER

J. HAMPDEN JACKSON

It will probably be a century hence before men fully realize the extent of the world’s debt to those English noblemen and gentlemen who in the last decade of the last century, sent forth Mungo Park as their emissary to find and trace specifically upon the map all he might discover as to this mysterious river. Their choice of the man was exceptionally fortunate.

I pass over all their disappointments, and the persistent courage with which they bore them, and need only remind you that these Englishmen of the African Association--soon afterwards to become the Royal Geographical Society--not only found and equipped Park and Clapperton and Lander, but it was at _their_ cost, on _their_ business and for _their_ entertainment alone, that Barth, the German explorer (whose brilliant and most accurate explorations are in our day constantly credited to his own nation instead of ours), undertook and finished his great journeys into Hausaland from North Africa.

We follow Park from his first discovery of the Niger at Sego, look with him on the breadth at that spot of its stream, realize his disappointment at having to return to England; his joy at coming for the second time to Bambarra, and then his voyage in the little craft bearing his country’s flag down to the devious waters of the unexplored river; past Kabara, from whose hill-top he might have seen Timbuktu had he but known and had he not been attacked there by the people on trying to land. Next we sail with Park past Birni, close to the capital of the former Songhay Empire, past Say, up the stream to Boussa, the capital of Borgu, 650 miles from the sea; and here on that memorable day of 1806 we see poor Park meet his death, and I hope it may not be long ere some worthy obelisk at the spot shall set forth indelibly the great record of his mission.

We come now to Richard Lander, and in like manner I take you over the route of this famous voyager, from Badagry (whence he struck inland) to Boussa, where he found the relics of Park, and then in his boats down stream past Mount Jebba--standing midway in the river, with an elevation above sea level of some 300 feet--past Rabbah--then the largest city on the Niger--to Egga, where the great ferry of the Kano-Ilorin traffic makes prosperous the chief port of Nupé, and now--in the distance--appears the table-topped Mount Patteh, rising 1,300 feet from the right bank, and as we sail with Lander under its shadow there opens out before us the noble confluence at Lokoja, where the Benué, the Niger’s mighty tributary, pours its mile-broad current into this great West African river. Next Lander passes between the jagged and stunted peaks of the Nigretian Alps, and nearing Idda, sees its bold precipices of red sandstone rear themselves on the left bank, and admires the giant baobab trees, the clustered round-roofed huts, and the busy throngs of Igara people passing to and fro from the riverside. But our explorer has vowed to follow the great Niger to its outflow, and we are still some 280 miles from the sea.

So Lander passes on in his boats, and nearing Asaba--now the seat of English government on the river--he notes that the native houses are now all of rectangular shape, and the people of Eboe type, and soon he is at Abo, and the tidal waters are recognized just as the ruffians of the Brass slaving fleet rush upon him and--capsizing his craft--Lander barely escapes with his life to find his brother drowning also. Rescued at last, John Lander is brought prisoner, together with Richard to the Brass mouth of the Niger, and their sufferings whilst waiting release and subsequently until landed at Fernando Po may well have made them dread the name of Brassmen. It may be that some day at Brass, or Akassa, English hands will raise a fitting and permanent memorial to this modest, uncultured and sterling character, who solved for all mankind the greatest geographical problem of his time, and opened the door for European commerce and civilization into West Central Africa. It must not be forgotten that MacQueen had all along contended that the Niger would be found to issue into the Atlantic through the swamps of the Bights of Benin and Biafra, nor are the reasons now obscure that account for that long hiding of geographical truth in the Gulf of Guinea. The Niger Delta is one covering 14,000 square miles; the Delta rivers creep into the sea almost unperceived through the low-level mangrove swamp; the whole region reeks with fevers and dysentery, and at the time of Lander’s discovery the only trade to be done in that “God-forgotten Guinea” was the slave-trade. Such white men as ventured to the Delta, therefore, were bent on secrecy rather than on discovery; and this had been the state of things for centuries. No wonder that the Niger had been a mystery, but it was a mystery no more.

The next step for its exploration was taken by Liverpool. Macgregor Laird raised a large fund among his merchant friends on the exchange, and added thereto a large part of his own fortune, built and equipped two steamships--the _Quorra_ and _Alburka_--and (with but little aid from the Government) took charge personally of this bold expedition, and in 1832 sailed for the Niger. Now, look at these banks forty feet at least above the river level, and remember that for three to four months of the year the villages lining them are simply floating in the vast waste of the Niger inundations. Mr. Laird found by a bitter experience that it was all very well to steam up the Niger when the stream was at flood, but when your crew were all down with fever and the river began to fall at the rate of a foot per day, the least accident--such as the stranding of the little _Quorra_--locked you up bag and baggage for a whole twelve months, and brought you face to face with terrible dangers. The mortality on board the steamers was awful, but Laird kept the expedition well in hand; he explored a great part of the upper middle Niger, a considerable distance up the Benué, and established the first English trading factories, 350 miles from the mouth of the Niger, ere his return to Liverpool. Like all other travellers who have seen the Benué, Laird was greatly impressed with the volume and purity of its waters, the beauty of its landscape on either bank, and the rich promise of development in its already quickened commerce. Look at the woodland beauty at Ribago, for instance; or the fine cultivated plain at Yola; and the impressive rock-fortress at Imaha. And see these fine Hausa peoples who inhabit the Sokoto and Bornu countries of the inter-riverine plateau. They are an ancient race, grave and industrious, of fine physique and highly intellectual phrenological type.

Centuries ago Macrisi--the Egyptian historian--told of their gourd-ferries, and the world laughed at such a “traveller’s tale”; but here you see them for yourselves. Centuries ago men wrote of the vast city of Timbuktu, but what is Timbuktu to Kano, the Hausa capital? Look at this wall surrounding Sokoto City, and think of the wall of Kano being as high as that and fifteen miles round! The Fulah aristocracy live at Sokoto, and their Sultan bears spiritual rule over the greater part of Hausaland; his temporal power is no myth, either, for in 1891 he raised an army of 40,000 men--half of whom were cavalry--under the eyes of Monteil. But the crumbling houses of Sokoto tell their own tale of a city that has long passed its zenith, and like Timbuktu, whose population has fallen from 200,000 to 7,000, like Katsena, whose population has fallen from 100,000 to 6,000, so Sokoto is daily yielding its temporal sceptre to Kano, the city of markets and manufactures, the centre of literature as well as of prosperous agriculture, the starting-point of the Soudan caravans, the central slave market, cloth market, metal market and the busy focus of all industries. See the great market square in which 30,000 people assemble for commercial exchange every week; these fourteen gates, through which the hosts of organized caravans are ever issuing, most of them 600 or 800 strong at the very least, and twenty of which go every year to Salaga for Kola-nut alone! Think of the Mecca pilgrims who all assembled here to form their great cavalcades yearly; of the 60,000 artificers and cultivators living in this Kano, with its enclosed fields of rich crops, its leather factories, shoe and sandal factories, dyeing works, cotton spinning and weaving, basket making, brass manufacture and ornamentation, etc. And remember that, thanks to our English chartered companies, this Kano, and these fine Hausa people--whose language has long been the key-tongue of all trade in Central Africa--are brought securely under the flag and influence of Great Britain. It is, from our point of view, a drawback that Kano lies at an unhealthy level, and its people defy every sanitary decency in their abbatoir and cemetery arrangements, but that is their way of being happy. Katsena is much more salubrious, having 1,500 feet of elevation.

Ere long, under British tutelage, and freed from dread of the Fulah slave-raider, the rascal who raids his own people for the mere joy of it, freed from this curse, the Hausa States will rise to preëminence through the aptitude and capacity for discipline inherent in that virile people.

I must pass over Bornu and its great chief city of Kuka, but would like to dwell for a moment on the deeply interesting fact that here--in the Chartered State of British Nigretia--we tread upon the dust of empires. At the time of our Heptarchy this very Bornu was the seat of a Negro empire covering a million and a half square miles, and extending from the Niger to the Nile. And Sokoto and Gandu--our Treaty states--formed but part of the Negro empire of Songhay, having its capital at Gogo on the Niger, and extending westward and northward as far as the Atlantic and Morocco.

THE AMAZON

JOSEPH JONES

The main stream of the Amazon is about 4,000 miles long--long enough that is to go in a circle twice round the British Isles, or 600 miles longer than the voyage from Liverpool to New York. For the lowest 250 miles of its course it is fifty miles wide, or if the Island of Marajo in its mouth be regarded as a huge sand bank, which is what it really is, then it is 200 miles wide at its mouth. In other words, one might take the whole of Scotland, push it into the mouth of this river and leave only a small piece projecting. The Amazon has nineteen very large tributaries, each of which is really a gigantic river in itself, and through these tributaries it is connected with the Orinoco and the River Plata. The Amazon rises near the west coast of South America, about sixty miles from Lima in Peru, and runs into the Atlantic, traversing nearly the whole width of the widest part of South America in its course. Its depth in places is twenty fathoms or 120 feet. It drains an area nearly the size of all Europe, and is the largest body of fresh water in the world. Its average speed of flow is two and a half miles per hour. Hence in going up-stream a boat hugs the bank to avoid the current, whilst in descending it sails in mid-stream in order to obtain full advantage of the same. As may be guessed, progress is quicker down-stream than up. The influence of its flow can be felt 150 miles from the shore. On one occasion the mess-room steward filled the filter direct from the sea when the ship was long out of sight of land, yet the water was only very slightly brackish. The inland navigation of the Amazon and its branches extends over 20,000 miles. The name is supposed to be derived from “Amassona,” the Indian word for “boat-destroyer,” on account of the tidal wave which rages in the channel to the north of the Island of Marajo, and on account of which boats enter by the south channel.

The river is high at the end of the rainy season and low after the dry season, but even at low river the ship in which I sailed, an ocean-going steamer, experienced no difficulty in sailing as far as Manâos. The difference in level is a matter of thirty feet, so that whereas in August you step out of a small boat on to the landing-stage, in October, when the river is about at its lowest, you have to walk on planks, from the boat to the foot of the landing-stage, mount this by a ladder and go ashore.

Being so near the equator, the Amazon is in a warm district. In the coolest part of the ship the temperature used to rise to 84° Fahrenheit in the afternoon, whilst in the sun 120° Fahrenheit was registered, and some of the pitch in the seams of the deck was melted. This was when ascending the river. There is a ten knot breeze from the sea which makes it cooler on returning, but on the inward journey when travelling with the wind and at practically the same speed, one is of course in a dead calm and uncomfortably hot. The river water itself at 6 A. M., was always between 88° Fahrenheit and 89° Fahrenheit.

Besides steamers the Amazon is navigated by battalongs, wooden craft, about twelve yards in length, covered with an awning of palm branches, which come from Peru and elsewhere with native produce, are manned by Indians who live aboard, and which take two months to get back home from Manâos against the stream. Smaller boats are driven by square sails of blue and white cotton, which bear traces of Manchester origin, and there are also native canoes propelled by paddles.

The Indians fish in an interesting manner by means of bow and arrow, with a line attached to the arrow. If they can get a couple of arrows firmly shot in they can usually haul in a river turtle or other large fish. There is a large fish with red flesh which serves the people in some parts instead of beef (cattle being dear). Thus they don’t fulfil the old definition of an angler as “a worm at one end and a fool at the other.” River turtle when caught are laid on their backs, in which position they are helpless, and one on board the ship laid eighty-six eggs at one break whilst in this position. The eggs are spherical, covered with a flexible limy shell, and resemble in appearance a small tennis-ball. They are a treat out there, where eggs are very scarce. The flesh of this kind of turtle is rather tough and not unlike pork.

A great variety of animal life is to be found, including mosquitoes, cockroaches, moths, butterflies, alligators, snakes, tarantulas, centipedes, and grasshoppers.

The savage people, who live some little distance from the river, are of about our average height and build, walnut-coloured, with long straight jet-black hair. In war they fight with bamboo-headed spears and poisoned arrows, the latter propelled by a powerful bow seven feet long. The arrow-heads, of bone, are dipped in snake venom and inflict a mortal wound. The venom is said to be procured by boiling snakes’ heads to extract it from the glands and evaporating the solution to almost dryness. Right inland the tribes often have battles, and the victors kill the women and children of the vanquished. They have a horrible habit of cutting off the heads of girls, skinning them, and curing the skin in such a way that it shrinks, but retains its colour and texture, when they stuff it, producing a head the size of one’s fist, but perfect in shape. They sell them at from £12 to £30 to Europeans, who ought to know better than to buy them.

The civilized people speak the Portuguese language and are of European habits. They are more polite than the British, though this is noticeable by their habits being different from ours rather than by being better. For instance, I have seen a first-class passenger expectorate on the saloon floor when at dinner and never blush, but he would think himself dreadfully impolite if he wore his hat in a restaurant. One is impelled to Max O’Rell’s conclusion that “one nation is not better or worse than another. One nation is different from another, that is all.”

The money is mostly paper, and there is no paper legal tender less than the milreis (2s. 3d. nominally, actually about 7d.). In Pará small change is given in tram tickets.

The vegetable kingdom numbers 17,000 species and is a veritable fairy-land. Orchids, which with us are so highly prized, are much cheaper there. Very many varieties grow quite wild and are little esteemed. I know one man who had an orange tree in his garden and considered it a nuisance. It crowded out some valuable exotic orchids. He would willingly have let any one take it away but no one would have it. The whole country resembles a gigantic greenhouse, and it is not without a touch of annoyance that a Briton sees beautiful palms and other trees wasted on people who do not appreciate them when they would be welcome at home. The hanging roots or tendrils, which grow downwards from the branches until they take root in the ground, are quite strange to us, and they offer great resistance to path-making. The most important tree is the india rubber, _Herveia Brasilensis_, which is a large tree, and entirely different from the _Ficus elasticus_, which is commonly called “india rubber” here and grown in rooms. The raw rubber is obtained by incising the bark and collecting the “milk” in a can. A paddle is dipped into this and the milk adhering to it smoked over some burning nuts. This is done with successive dippings until a piece the size of a ham is on the paddle, when a slit is made in the side and the paddle withdrawn. It is quite possible that the wily native may insert a pebble, when he has withdrawn the paddle, since rubber is sold by weight. The best quality is that obtained from the Island of Marajo and known as Island Rubber. This is said to be because a species of nut grows there the smoke of which cures the rubber better than any other kind of smoke. It is said that every kind of rubber requires some admixture of the Pará variety to make it useful in commerce. Many of the rubber cutters live in shanties on the river’s edge and keep a canoe moored at the door. More inland the poorer classes live in mud huts built on a framework of light wood. Some of these when whitewashed make very presentable houses, as seen in the view of the main street of Parentins, where the post-office and neighbouring buildings are all of this sort. The cathedrals are generally handsome buildings, and the post-office at Pará is a pretty structure.

The shops are open fronted and usually have no windows, so that at a short distance one cannot tell of what kind they are unless the goods are displayed outside.

The streets are peculiarly named, for instance “Fifteenth of November Square” (date of foundation of the Republic), “Dr. Guimarez Lane,” and so on.

The cities bear very evident traces of newness. You may see a public square enclosing a tract of virgin soil and except that the palms are planted in straight rows all the vegetation is natural. There are handsome walnut counters in whitewashed stores and burglar-proof safes inside offices which you could demolish with your foot.

Outside the cities the general appearance of the country gives one an idea of what Britain must have been like at the time of the Roman invasion, and shows how civilization spread along the course of the rivers.

THE YANGTSE CHIANG

W. R. CARLES

The great river of China which foreigners call the Yangtse Chiang, has its sources on the south-east edge of the great steppes which form Central Asia. Rising almost due north of Calcutta, it flows eastwards for some 500 miles, draining a very considerable area on its way, and then turns southwards until it is penned in by the great parallel ranges which until recent years have hidden it and its great neighbours from European eyes. Even after entering China its course has remained obscure, and the deep rift through which it makes its way to the navigable portion of its waters in Sze Chuen is, save here and there, still unexplored. In the eastern half of Sze Chuen it receives the drainage of another large area, before entering the country commonly known as the Ichang Gorges, and on leaving the Gorges its arms spread north and south from the Yellow River to the Canton province, affording easily navigable routes through the heart of China, and by the Grand Canal to Tientsin.

One of the largest rivers in the world, its importance to China as a waterway in some of the wealthiest and most thickly populated provinces of the empire completely overshadows all the other river-systems of the country.

The actual length of the Yangtse Chiang is at present unknown. The navigable portion, _i. e._, to Ping-shan Hsien, is 1,550 miles. West of Ping-shan Hsien the river attains its extreme southern and northern limits; but from a careful measurement made for me of the best maps owned by the Royal Geographical Society, its entire length is not much more than 3,000 miles. The area of drainage is probably between 650,000 and 700,000 square miles.

Between the Tangla Mountains, whose south slopes drain into the Tsang-po and the Salwin Rivers, and the Kuenlun Mountains, which form the south buttress of the Tsaidam steppes, the Yangtse Chiang, even at its source near the 90th meridian, draws on a basin nearly 240 miles in depth from north to south. Below the confluence of the three main streams this basin is somewhat contracted by the north-west south-east trend of the Baian Kara range, and the river is gradually deflected southwards. From the 99th meridian its course is almost due south, passing through the country of the Tanguts, or St. Fans, until at last it enters China.

This part of its course is, roughly speaking, parallel with the Mekong and Salwin Rivers. Penned in by high mountains, which form an extension of the great plateau of Central Asia, these rivers continue in close proximity to each other for nearly two hundred miles.

The immense depth of the gorges through which the Yangtse Chiang has cut its way in Yun Nan and west Sze Chuen, and the extraordinary freaks played by its tributaries on the right bank, have prevented the course of the Yangtse Chiang below the Ya-lung from being thoroughly ascertained. Its course, as laid down by the Jesuits, appears to have been mainly mere guesswork, and some corrections have recently been made. Apparently it here attains its lowest latitude--26° north. The strength of the stream and the height of the banks above the river prevent much use being made of it for boat traffic, even in the few portions where no dangers exist. The grandness of these gorges culminates in the “Sunbridge,” Tai-yang-chiao, a mountain at least 20,000 feet high, “which falls to the Yangtse Chiang in a series of terraces, which from below appear like parallel ridges, and abuts on the river into a precipice or precipices, which must be 8,000 feet above its waters. The main affluent on the right bank received in this part of its course is the Niu-lan River, the gorges of which are also very grand.

Ping-shan is generally regarded as the head of continuous navigation, but Mr. Hosie descended the river by boat from Man-i-sau, forty _li_ higher up.

The Fu-ling, Chien Chiang, Kung-t’an or Wu-chiang, which joins the Yangtse Chiang at Fu-Chau on the right bank, is the last considerable tributary received before reaching the gorges leading to Ichang. This river is important as the first of the streams which form the great network of water-communication which binds Peking and Canton with Central China. By the Fu-ling Canton can be reached with only two short portages, and a certain amount of trade with Hankau is carried on by this and the Yuan River in preference to taking goods up the Yangtse Chiang.

The gorges which have shut in the Yangtse Chiang almost from its source close in upon it again below Fu-Chau, and continue to within a few miles of Ichang, contracting the river at one or two points to a width of 150 yards.

In the autumn of 1896, some forty miles below Wan Hsien, a landslip occurred, which carried down into the river a portion of the mountainside, estimated by Mr. Bourne at 700 yards by 400 yards. This at present forms a complete obstacle to any hope of steam navigation between Ichang and Chung-King, and is much more formidable than the Yeh-tan, Hsin-tan, or any of the other rapids which had hitherto been in question. The Ching-tan, or Hsin-tan, was similarly formed some two hundred and fifty years ago, and it is probable, therefore, that other rapids originated in the same way.

Many rivers are received on either bank before Ichang is reached, of which the most important is the Ching-Chiang, which enters the Yangtse Chiang on the right bank below Ichang.

At Sha-shih, the port of Chong-Chau Fu, the character of the country changes, and an extensive embankment thirty feet high, and from seventy feet to three hundred feet wide at the base, is necessary to protect the country from inundation. The inland water communication extending from Ching-chau to Hankau, on the east, and connecting with the higher parts of the Han River, exposes an immense area to suffering from floods, and the city itself was almost destroyed on one occasion by freshets in the inland waters. The facilities of communication afforded by these routes make Sha-shih a centre of great commercial value, for, independent of the great highway of the Yangtse Chiang and of the canals already mentioned, there are also two large canals on the right bank of the river connecting with the Tung-ting Lake.

Driven onwards by the immense pressure from behind, the waters of the Yangtse Chiang, though moving in an almost perfect plane, have an average surface current throughout the year of two knots at Hankau, where the river is 1,450 yards broad, and has an average depth of forty-two feet. In their course to the sea, the entrance to the Poyang Lake is almost the only place below Wuhsueh at which a passenger on a steamer can detect the influx of any other river. The main river, its tributaries, and the inland canals all form a part of one great network, which proclaims the delta of the river. The rivers of East Hu Peh, North Kiang Si, An Hui, and Kiang Su, which enter the Yangtse Chiang, are very scarcely recognizable as fresh contributions. Even the waters of the Yellow River drained into the Yangtse Chiang in 1889 without for some time exciting any comment on the addition to its volume.

The coal fields of Hu Nan have of late concentrated attention on the Tung-ting Lake and the valley of the Hsaing as the future trade route between South and Central China; but until recently the valley of the Kan, which is navigable by boat from near the Mei-ling Pass on the frontier of Kwang-Tung to the Poyang Lake, was the great official waterway from Canton to Peking.

The Shu or Chin Chiang, which passes Nan-Chang-Fu to the north-west of the lake, and the Chin or Chin-Chia Chiang, which descends from Kwang-Hsin-Fu on the north-east, are the largest of the other rivers which drain into the Poyang Lake, but part of the waters of Hui-chu-Fu in An Hui are also received by it, and it is noteworthy how many routes exist through the mountains on the east to the Che Kiang and Fu Kein.

The lake, which is reported to be 1,800 square miles in extent, acts, like the Tung-ting Lake, as a great reservoir to check inundations.

On leaving Kiang Si and entering An Hui, the river at Wuhu reaches the point where a branch in olden days made its way southwards to the Chien-tang Gulf, near Hang-Chau Fu. Its course is conjectured to have been through a series of lagoons, known in ancient times as the five lakes (the Chen-tse) and its delta is presumed not to have extended further east than the Lang-shan Hills, but the whole subject has been a fertile source of controversy. Another branch must have passed by Sung-kiang Fu, and thence near to Shanghai. The south bank of the present course of the river seems to give indications that its bed was in former days on a higher level than now, but at the present day it is only by embankments that the Yangtse Chiang is prevented from finding a way for some of its surplus waters by the Tai Hu and Su-chau to the sea.

The area of the Tai-Hu and the other lakes in the southern delta of the Yangtse Chiang has been estimated at 1,200 square miles (out of a total area of 5,400 square miles), and the total length of the small channels used for irrigation and navigation at 36,000 miles. But these figures are based upon imperfect maps of the country, and therefore not thoroughly trustworthy.

On the north bank of the river an even more marvellous system of artificial waterworks exists. The Huai River, which, with its seventy-two tributaries, is a most important commercial route to north An Hui and Ho Nan, used to find a natural course to the sea to the south of Shan Tung, but has been diverted by a double series of lakes and innumerable canals, and has now no existence as a river east of the Grand Canal. The enlargement of some lakes and the excavations of others were carried out with a view to preventing too great a pressure on any one point of the Grand Canal south of the old course of the Yellow River. The greater part of the Huai now finds its way to the Yangtse Chiang through different openings in a large canal, which runs almost parallel with the river for a distance of 140 miles. North of this canal lies an immense parallelogram, estimated by Père Gandar at 2,300,000 hectares (8,876 square miles) in extent, which is below the water-level. This is intersected by a series of waterways kept under the most careful control, and constitutes one of the most valuable rice fields in the country. To protect it from inundations by the sea, immense dykes and a large canal stretch north and south between the Yangtse Chiang and the old course of the Yellow River. Through these dykes are eighteen openings for canals to the sea, but the main drainage is southwards to the Yangtse Chiang. Between the dykes and the sea lie the flats which form the great salt-fields of Central China.

The Yangtse Chiang in its lower reaches is subject to great and rapid changes, of which little trace is evident to the eye after the lapse of a few years, though the depth of the river in many parts is 140 feet and more. One of the most notable instances is at Chin-Kiang. The earliest European travellers to Peking by the Grand Canal speak invariably of the city of Kua Chau, and only incidentally refer to the passage of the Yangtse Chiang. At present the nearest entrances to the northern and southern portions of the Grand Canal are miles apart; the passage between them, along the waters of the Yangtse Chiang, is often tedious and sometimes impracticable. But at the time the southern entrance to the canal was by a canal which ran between Chin-Kiang and the river, and debouched opposite Golden Island, which was within hailing distance of Kua Chau.

When our fleet ascended the Yangtse Chiang in 1842, it was to the south of this island that it passed. Now to the south of “the island” is cultivated land, studded with trees and villages, and the only existing canal south of Golden Island is so shallow as to be in winter not navigable even to boats. On the north of the so-called island (Golden Island) the city of Kua Chau has been completely engulfed, and even its north wall has long since been lost to sight.

The changes which are taking place in the lower reaches of the river, in the formation of islands and the alteration of channels, are on an even larger scale. One of the best-known instances is the island of Tsungming, near Shanghai, the population which rose from 12,700 families at the end of the Thirteenth Century to 89,000 at the beginning of the Eighteenth, and is now estimated at 1,150,000 souls.

The great river known to Europeans throughout its whole length as the Yangtse, or Yangtse Chiang, from the name which it bears on Chinese maps in its tidal portion only, undergoes many a change of name. In its higher waters in Tibet, the Murus, or Mur-usu, or Murui-osu (“Tortuous River”) joins the Napchitai-ulan-muren and Tokton-ai-ulan-muren, and below their confluence the river is known as the Dre-chu, or Di-chu, variations of which have reached us through different travellers in Bichu, Bicui, Brichu, and the Brius of Marco Polo. Its Tibetan name is Link-arab, and the Chinese name Tung-tien-ho. Where the river forms the boundary between Tibet and China, it is called by Chinese the Chin (or Kin) Sha Chiang, and by the Tibetans the N’geh-chu; near the confluence of the Yalung it is called the Pai-Shui-Chiang, or White Water River; and as far as Sui Fu (or Sii-chu Fu) the Chin Ho. In the gorges of Ichang it is the Ta-ch’a Ho (river of great débris). At Sha-shih it has the name of Ching Chiang, from Ching, an ancient Division of China, through which it passes. Below Hankau it is called the Chiang, Ch’ang Chiang (Long River) Ta Chiang, or Ta-Kuan-Chiang (Great Official River), and for the last two hundred miles of its course it appears as the Yangtse Chiang, a name which it gains from Yang, another of the ancient divisions of the empire, and which is still retained by Yang-chau-Fu.

The fall of the river is very rapid. Mr. Rockhill assigns an altitude of 13,000 feet to the place where he first crossed it, some distance below the junction of the Mur-usu with the Napchitai and Toktonai Rivers, and of 12,000 feet to the ferry where he recrossed it eighty-four miles lower down. From Batang (8,540 feet) to Wa-Wu, in Sze Chuen (1,900 feet), the fall was estimated by Mr. Baber at not less than eight feet per mile; thence to Huang-kuo-shu (1,200 feet) at six feet per mile; below this to Ping-shan (1,025 feet) about three feet; and from Ping-shan to Chung-Ching (630 feet) approximately nineteen inches, and in its lower course less than six inches. The fall between Chung-Ching and Ichang (129 feet) is about thirteen and a half inches; thence to Hankau (fifty-three feet) only two and a half inches, and from Hankau to the sea little more than one inch per mile.

THE THAMES

CHARLES DICKENS, JR.

Although scarcely any of the scenery of the Thames above Oxford is to be mentioned in the same breath with the beauties of Nuneham, of Henley, of Marlow, or of Cliveden, there is still much to attract the lover of nature who is content with quiet and pastoral landscapes and to whom the peaceful solitude through which the greater part of the journey lies, will have a peculiar charm. It is not advisable to take boat at Cricklade. For some distance below this little Wiltshire town the stream is narrow, and in dry seasons uncomfortably shallow. Travellers, therefore, who come to Cricklade, with the intention of seeing as much of the river as possible, may be recommended to take the very pretty walk of about ten miles along the towing-path of the Thames and Severn Canal to Lechlade. Here the river proper may be said to begin. Half a mile after leaving Lechlade on the right is St. John’s Lock with an average fall of three feet; and just below it is the St. John’s Bridge, with the Trout Inn on the left bank. For some distance below this stream is very narrow, and generally weedy; and, after passing Buscot Church, a couple of sharp turns brings us on the left to Buscot Lock. A couple of miles lower down is the little village of Eaton Hastings; Faringdon Hill, with its large clump of Scotch firs being a conspicuous object on the right bank and two miles further again is Radcot Bridge, distant from Oxford twenty-six miles. The next point is Old Man’s Bridge, twenty-five miles from Oxford, and after about two miles of rather monotonous travelling, we come sharp on the left to Rushy Lock and a mile further to Tadpole Bridge, twenty-two miles from Oxford, with the Trout Inn, a convenient place for luncheon. About a couple of miles from Tadpole is Ten Foot Bridge and a mile or so lower down are the village and ferry of Duxford. A mile or so below this there is considerable shoaling and half a mile further an island with Poplars, where the Berks bank should be followed. After making two or three bends, beyond this point, there is a prettily wooded bank on the right, and a short mile of capital water for rowing brings us to New Bridge from Oxford fifteen miles, which, notwithstanding its name, is of great antiquity. Another mile brings us to the bridge where was formerly Langley’s or Ridge’s Weir. About four and a half miles from New Bridge is Bablock Hithe Ferry, ten and a half miles from Oxford, below which there is a fine stream, the scenery becoming very good, with fine bold hills and the Earl of Abingdon’s woods at Wytham. After passing Skinner’s Weir, the river twists and turns about a good deal until we reach Pinkhill Lock, eight and a half miles from Oxford, with a fall of about three feet. Round a good many corners and rather more than a mile off is Eynsham Bridge. Good reaches for about three miles bring us to King’s Weir, sharp on the right, the stream to the left going to the Duke’s Lock, the junction with the Oxford Canal. Passing presently under Godstow Bridge, are seen the ruins of Godstow Nunnery and Godstow Lock, three and a half miles from Oxford, on leaving which a pretty view of the city is obtained. Three hundred yards further is Osney Lock. A little further is Folly Bridge, Oxford.

The towing-path after leaving Folly Bridge, Oxford, follows the right bank. On the left are the boat-rafts and the barges of the various colleges moored off Christ Church Meadows, where in the winter, after a flood, there is sometimes capital skating. About three-quarters of a mile from Folly Bridge are the long bridges across a backwater, which reënters the Thames--in this part of its course sometimes called the Isis--half a mile below Iffley. Half a mile below Iffley is the iron bridge of the Great Western Railway, from beneath which is a very pretty view of the spires of Oxford, particularly of the tower of Magdalen College. Along the left bank for some distance is one of those grand pieces of woodland scenery for which the Thames is so renowned. The woods extend as far as the iron railway bridge, after passing which the spire of Abingdon church appears above the trees to the right. Rather more than a mile below the cottages at Nuneham is the fall on the left where the old and present channels divide. Half a mile further and sharp to the left is Abingdon Lock, average fall six feet, from London 104½ miles, from Oxford seven and one-quarter miles. The river here runs through flat meadows. The view of Abingdon, with the spire of St. Helen’s, is very pretty. Culham Lock, a good stone lock with an average fall of seven feet; Clifton Lock with an average fall of three feet; and Days Lock with an average fall of four feet six inches, are passed. A little over a mile on the left bank is Dorchester with its famous abbey church. The footpath crosses the Roman remains known as The Dyke Hills. On Sinodun Hill on the right is a fine Roman camp. Below the ferry on the right is Bensington Lock, with an average fall of six feet six inches. The country from here to Wallingford is charmingly wooded.

Wallingford, from London ninety and three-quarter miles, from Oxford twenty and three-quarter miles is a very convenient place to break the journey, and the breakfasts and ale at the “Lamb” deserve particular attention. From Cleeve Lock there is a lovely view of the hills and woods above Streatley. Goring Lock is a favourite place for campers. Further on to the right are Basildon church and village and further still, opposite the beech woods and on the brow of the hill to the right is Basildon Park. At this point a fine stretch of water runs almost in a straight line for a considerable distance; the banks on either side are well wooded, and the view up or down is one of the most sylvan on the river. Just before making the bend before Pangbourne Reach is Coombe Lodge with its beautiful park, and at the end of the chalk ridge on the right is Pangbourne, from London eighty and three-quarter miles, from Oxford thirty and three-quarter miles.

Below Whitchurch Lock a wooden bridge connects Whitchurch and Pangbourne, and at its foot is the pretty house known as Thames Bank. After leaving Mapledurham Lock on the right, there is a charming view. Caversham Bridge, the nearest point for Reading, and Caversham Lock, Sonning Lock and Sonning Shiplake Lock and Wargrave and Marsh Lock bring us distant from London sixty-six miles.