The next morning we were up and dressed by five o'clock. The boats had already started on their upward course, and, after a few hours yulowing and sailing, we came to the first rapid. Here the mountains open out from the sides of the river, leaving some fine grassy slopes which run down to the water's edge. In many places these slopes have been taken advantage of by the mountaineers, and are cultivated with various kinds of grain and vegetables. This is the first of some eight or ten rapids between Ichang and Chunking. At the lower end of each rapid there is a village, as it is called, which consists only of some forty or fifty stone and mud huts. The people in these places earn their livelihood chiefly by assisting to haul boats through the rapids, which vary in length at different times, according to the quantity of water in the river, from a quarter of a mile to a mile-and-a-half. Running at a speed of from seven to nine miles an hour, it can easily be supposed that no boats could ascend these places without much additional help being given to the ordinary crews. So these villagers became a necessity, and grew into existence many centuries ago.

Our loudah went ashore, carrying with him one or two strings of cash, and, for a mere trifle, hired some sixty or seventy men to help on the tow-rope, and bring us beyond the head of the rapid.