THE "NEW RAPID" IN THE UPPER YANGTSE AND THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST STEAMER AT CHUNGKING

The " New Rapid," as it is now called — although the old New Rapid in Hupeh, fifty miles above I-chang, still goes by that name, and was, till the landslip inYiin-yang occurred in September, 1896, the most formidable obstacle on the Upper Yangtse — is still a mighty hindrance to the trade of Szechuan. When we passed through it on February I 27, 1898, in the little steamer Leechiien, endeavouring to show the way to the larger steamers which would we hoped ere long travel between I-chang and Chungking, we found 327 junks laid up in the reach below the rapid, waiting their turn to ascend. Coming from Yiin-yang city and rounding the point which opens up this wide reach, we . could have imagined ourselves entering a vast and pictur- i esque land-locked harbour crowded with traffic. The big junks which carry on the trade with Chungking, ranging from ten to 130 tons' burthen, were moored along both banks for a distance of a mile or more, while numbers of sampans and small boats were crossing to and fro, ferrying passengers and bearing supplies to the junks and their crews. The upper junks were discharging their cargoes preparatory to being towed up, and gangs of heavily laden coolies were groaning under bales of yarn \ and Manchester goods as they laboured along, up and | down the steep improvised rock-paths on either shore. The river valley here is some three to four miles wide, bounded by steep mountains : below these are rolling foot hills, formed from the accumulations of their detritus ; the river bottom is composed of a hard grey sandstone in which the river has cut a channel, leaving at this lowwater season long ridges of high, flat-topped, jagged rock banks between which the water sweeps down in a rapid current. This formation extends a hundred miles or more between the cities of Yiin-yang ("Clouded Sun," — most true of Szechuan) and Wan (whence I now write). These flat rock banks are overflowed from May to November, when the river nearly fills its valley and the navigation becomes dangerous. It was over this rock-edge, now standing sixty feet above the water level, that the great landslip of foothills, which broke bodily away from the steep mountain ridge behind in September, 1896, on the north or left bank, poured its mass of detritus, comprising large, angular fragments of rock with intervening stiff clay, into the bay which formerly occupied the spot ; building up a long projecting lofty spit, which narrowed the river from 400 to about 150 yards : in one night converting a tranquil reach into a furious rapid, with a fall of ten to twelve feet in a distance of a hundred yards. A reef of now half-submerged rocks extends diagonally across the channel from the right bank, two-thirds of the way towards the newly-formed point, greatly adding to the danger and the fury of the rapid.

「新灘」，如現今所稱，儘管在湖北宜昌上游五十英里的舊「新灘」仍以此名為人熟知，並且在1896年9月雲陽的山崩發生前，曾是長江上游最具威脅的障礙，至今依然是四川貿易的重要阻礙之一。1898年2月27日，我們乘坐小蒸汽船「利川」號經過此地，試圖為未來從宜昌到重慶的更大型蒸汽船開路。我們發現有327艘帆船停泊在急灘下游的河段，等待時機上行。當我們從雲陽城出發，繞過一個轉角進入這片寬廣的河段時，彷彿進入了一個巨大的風景如畫的內陸港灣，充滿了繁忙的船隻。這些大帆船負載量從十噸到130噸不等，沿著兩岸停泊了一英里多，許多小船和舢板來回穿梭，運送乘客和給帆船及其船員補給物資。上游的帆船正在卸貨，準備被拖上急灘；岸邊有一群群挑夫，吃力地運送著紗線和曼徹斯特的貨物，沿著兩岸臨時鋪設的陡峭石路艱難行進，口中發出沉重的呻吟。

這段河谷寬約三到四英里，被陡峭的山脈包圍；這些山脈下是由其侵蝕物堆積而成的連綿丘陵，河床由堅硬的灰砂岩構成，河流在其中切割出一條水道，當時正值枯水期，河床上露出了長條形的高大平頂嶙峋岩石，水流在它們之間急速湧動。這樣的地貌在雲陽（「雲遮日」——這對四川再貼切不過了）和萬縣之間綿延百餘英里。這些平坦的岩石河岸在每年5月至11月間會被洪水淹沒，當河水幾乎填滿整個河谷時，航行變得十分危險。1896年9月，北岸或左岸的山坡發生了一次大規模的山崩，大量由巨大的角質岩石和粘土組成的碎石崩落，傾瀉入曾經是一個河灣的地點，形成了一道長而高的尖角，將河道從約400碼縮窄至150碼左右；在一夜之間，這片平靜的河段變成了一處洶湧的急灘，百碼之間水位落差達到十到十二英尺。一條暗礁如今半沉於水中，從右岸斜向延伸到新形成的尖角，進一步增加了急灘的危險和洶湧程度。

" NEW RAPID " IN THE UPPER YANGTSE 135

I wrote from this spot, exactly a year before, a description of this remarkable phenomenon and of the efforts the Chinese were then making to cope with its results. An army of two thousand men was then engaged in digging away the point, stonemasons cutting up the larger rock fragments into portable pieces, and coolies carrying away loosened earth and boulders, which they emptied into the huge whirlpool that filled the remains of the bay excavated by the river below the rapid. In this way the apex of the point was cut back last year some 150 feet down to the lowest winter level of water, widening the river to that extent as soon as a rise of five or six feet enabled junks to track through the new channel thus formed. The work was resumed in January, 1898, under the scientific direction of the engineers detailed for the work at the request, it appears, of the Hupeh and Szechuan authorities, — Messrs. Tyler, Grey Donald, and Myers, all of the Lighthouse Department of the Imperial Maritime Customs. These gentlemen are hard at work " from early morn to dewy eve " on both banks of the river and upon the reef in midstream as well, with greatly insufficient appliances, such as could be picked up in Shanghai at a moment's notice, a limited supply of dynamite, insufficient electrical apparatus, and inferior, local-made gunpowder. Yet, in the short time they have been here, an astonishing deal of work has been done ; great excavations have been made in the point, which appeared wider and higher as the work advanced ; much of the mid-reef had been removed and also that immediately under the right bank, the dkhris from which were being utilised to build up a road for trackers under the cliff which lines the south shore. But their job appeared unlikely to be finished in the course of the next winter ; over two million cubic feet of earth and rock had yet to be removed, and a month hence the rise in the river would again stop work till December.

就在一年前，我曾在這個地方寫過一篇描述，講述這個引人注目的現象，以及當時中國人為應對其影響所做的努力。當時有一支由兩千人組成的隊伍正忙於挖掘這片尖角，石匠們將較大的岩石切割成便於搬運的小塊，苦力們則運走鬆散的土壤和巨石，並將它們倒入下游河灣形成的巨大漩渦中。通過這種方式，尖角在去年被削平了大約150英尺，直到冬季水位最低點。隨著水位上升五到六英尺，帆船得以通過新開闢的水道。

1898年1月，這項工作在工程師的科學指導下重新展開，據說這些工程師是應湖北和四川當局的要求派來的，他們是來自帝國海關燈塔部門的泰勒（Tyler）、格雷·唐納（Grey Donald）和邁爾斯（Myers）。這些工程師從早到晚不辭辛勞地在河的兩岸以及河中的礁石上工作，設備卻非常有限，大多是從上海臨時找到的。他們只有少量的炸藥、匱乏的電氣設備，以及當地製造的低質火藥。然而，儘管條件有限，在這段短暫的時間裡，他們已經完成了驚人的工作量。尖角被大幅削減，隨著工作推進，尖角變得更加寬廣和高聳；很多河中礁石也被移除，右岸下方的礁石同樣被清除，這些碎石被用來修築一條沿著南岸懸崖的纖夫道。

然而，這項工作似乎不太可能在下個冬季完成。還有超過兩百萬立方英尺的土壤和岩石需要移除，一個月後，河水水位上升，將再次阻止施工，直到12月才能繼續進行。

136 GLEANINGS FROM CHINA

We were fortunate on the evening of our arrival in being present to witness a grand dynamite explosion in the midway reef — the conclusion of many days' previous labours. Mines had been laid under water and were fired from a boat moored a hundred j^ards higher up river, with which they had been electrically connected. The explosion that took place resembled a small volcanic eruption, showers of rocks splashing into the glassy expanse of smooth water above the fall, some beyond and in dangerous proximity to the boat in which Mr. Tyler operated the discharge. We stood safe and sound high up on the bank opposite and enjoyed a finer spectacle than that of the explosion of Hell Gate, which I witnessed in New York, twenty-two years before. There spectators were not allowed to come near enough to see more than a low column thrown up and momentary disturbance in the sea down below which the reef had been tunnelled.我們非常幸運，抵達當晚便見證了一場盛大的炸藥爆破，這是幾天辛勤工作後的成果。炸藥被安置在河中央的礁石下方，並通過電線與停泊在上游約一百碼外的船隻相連，由泰勒先生在船上進行引爆。爆炸的場面如同小型火山噴發，碎石飛濺，落入瀑布上方平靜的水面，一些石塊甚至飛過瀑布，危險地接近泰勒先生所在的船。我們則站在對岸的高處，安全地觀賞這一壯觀的場面，比我二十二年前在紐約親眼目睹的「地獄門」爆破還要精彩。當時，觀眾被禁止靠近，只能看到一小柱水被拋起，並且礁石下的海面只是短暫地受到干擾。

" NEW RAPID " IN THE UPPER YANGTSE 137

At the same time, in the ground at our feet, a number of small gunpowder explosions were going on, small mines fired by time fuses and destined to break up the larger rock fragments which the day's excavations had exposed into manageable proportions for removal on the morrow. In the growing dusk the rocks crowned by flashes of flame and small columns of white smoke added to the picturesqueness of the naturally romantic scene. The loose stones shot forth fell so slowly that it was not difficult to dodge them when necessary.

The rapid had been sensibly modified by the work done during the previous year, especially in furnishing a path by the river level where trackers could walk with the three stay-lines which were attached inboard to every junk towing up, to prevent her taking a sheer out into the rapid. Stone posts had been driven into the shore at intervals for these guy-ropes to be made fast round against the strain becoming greater than the men could bear. The rush of water and the huge waves were a striking sight, as one thus stood close upon them, watching a junk hauled up inch by inch by three huge bamboo cables, a hundred men to each. Farther out the waves frequently swamped small boats so venturesome as to get too far from the shore, the laodahs being too poor or too thrifty to employ the expert local pilots ; yet if they kept too near in they were liable to be caught in the whirlpool below. Men were drowned here nearly every day ; once in the water they went down like stones, and Mr. Grey Donald told us he had seen a junk standing perpendicularly end-up, half out of water. Hence working on the slippery midway reef was ticklish work ; if a man lost his foothold he would be gone for ever.

同時，在我們腳下的地面上，幾處小型火藥爆破也在進行中，這些地雷是用慢燃導火索引爆的，目的是將當天挖掘出的較大岩石碎片炸成便於第二天搬運的小塊。隨著夜色漸深，岩石上方閃爍的火光和升起的白煙，為這本已充滿浪漫氣息的自然景色增添了一份奇異的美感。碎石飛濺，但速度緩慢，因此躲避它們並不困難。

過去一年的工作明顯改變了這段急流，特別是在河邊修建了一條小徑，供纖夫行走，三條纜繩固定在每艘被拖行的帆船上，以防船隻偏離進入湍急的水流。河岸間隔安裝了石樁，纜繩繞過這些石樁，防止纖夫無法承受過大的拉力。近距離觀察，洶湧的水流和巨大波浪帶來了強烈的震撼。只見一艘帆船被三根巨大的竹纜一點點拉上岸，每根纜繩都由一百名工人拉動。稍遠處，小船經常因離岸太遠而被波浪打翻，那些船老大過於貧窮或吝嗇，不願聘請當地熟練的領航員；然而，若靠得太近，則可能會被卷入下方的漩渦中。這裡幾乎每天都有人溺水，一旦落入水中，便像石頭一樣迅速沉下去。格雷·唐納先生告訴我們，他曾見過一艘帆船垂直立起，船身半沉半浮。因此，在滑溜的中間礁石上工作十分危險，一旦有人失足，就再也回不來了。

Mr. Bourne last year estimated the loss to merchants importing goods into Szechuan at 2^ per cent, of the value in porterage and wages of extra trackers, but this does not include the money loss in interest, which may be taken as a second 2^ per cent. Junks are detained here from one to three months and some never get over at all. At present five to six big junks ascend daily. It seems impossible, for reasons too long to explain here, to arrange for one set of junks to ply below, and another set to ply above the rapid, and interchange cargoes, which would seem to solve the difficulty with comparative ease. It was an anxious time for ourselves as, had we broken loose, as twice happened in previous rapids, the little steamer could never have lived in the raging surf she would have had to pass through before being brought up ; as it was we snapped one of our tow lines at a critical moment : fortunately the other two held and we got over in safety, but not without a good wetting.

去年，伯恩先生估算，商人將貨物運入四川的損失大約佔貨物價值的2.5%，這是因搬運費用和額外纖夫工資而造成的損失，但這並不包括利息損失，利息損失可以再增加2.5%。帆船通常在這裡被耽擱一到三個月，有些甚至無法通過。目前每天約有五六艘大帆船能夠上行。儘管從表面上看，安排一批帆船在急灘下游航行，另一批在上游航行，並在此處進行貨物轉運，似乎是解決問題的簡單方法，但由於種種原因（此處不便詳述），這種方法無法實行。

對我們而言，這段航行充滿了緊張，因為如果我們像在之前兩次經歷其他急灘時那樣失控，這艘小蒸汽船將無法在洶湧的波濤中存活，會在我們能夠停船之前被巨浪吞沒。就在關鍵時刻，我們的一根纜繩斷裂了，幸運的是，剩下的兩根纜繩堅持住了，我們成功地通過了急灘，但也免不了被徹底淋濕了一身。

138 GLEANINGS FROM CHINA