in the saloon amidships we bumped our heads on the bamboo matting which
formed an arched roof. On the nose of the boat slept seven men--you may
question it, reader, but they did; in the stern, on either side of a
great rudder, slept our boy and a friend of his; and between them and
us, laid out flat on the top of a cellar (used by the ship's cook for
the storing of rice, cabbage, and other uneatables, and the
breeding-cage of hundreds of rats, which swarm all around one) were the
captain and commodore--a fat, fresh-complexioned, jocose creature,
strenuous at opium smoking. Through the holes in the curtain--a piece of
sacking, but one would not wish this to be known--dividing them from us,
we could see him preparing his globules to smoke before turning in for
the night, and despite our frequent raving objections, our words ringing
with vibrating abuse, it continued all the way to Chung-king: he
certainly gazed in disguised wonderment, but we could not get him to say
anything bearing upon the matter. Temperature during the day stood at
about 50 degrees, and at night went down to about 30 degrees above
freezing point. Rains were frequent. Journalistic labors, seated upon
the upturned saucepan aforesaid, without a cushion, went hard. At night
the Chinese candle, much wick and little wax, stuck in the center of an
empty "Three Castles" tin, which the boy had used for some days as a
pudding dish, gave us light. We generally slept in our overcoats, and as
many others as we happened to have. Rats crawled over our uncurtained
bodies, and woke us a dozen times each night by either nibbling our ears
or falling bodily from the roof on to our faces. Our joys came not to
us--they were made on board.

The following are the Gorges, with a remark or two about each, to be
passed through before one reaches Kweifu:--

NAME OF GORGE LENGTH REMARKS