3-028-526 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene on the Upper Yang-Tze-Kiang, China, 1870. 'Very little is yet known of the frequent and remarkable changes in this river; or whether its rising should be ascribed to the rains, or to the melting of snows at its sources...It is...between I-Chang and Chung-King...that steam-navigation would be most valuable, dispensing with the necessity of the large crews, averaging thirty-five men, employed to track the junks up over the rapids. The voyage of a junk between Chung-King and Hankow usually takes three months, being often delayed by adverse winds...The View shown by Lieutenant Palmer's sketch engraved for this Number is one of the Lukan Gorge, described in Captain Blakiston's book. The sketch is taken from a point about a mile within the gorge, looking back through its eastern entrance, and down the river. The stream in the foreground is a mountain torrent flowing into the Yang-Tze, from right to left in our view, and the main river appears descending from the extreme right hand...Sub-Lieutenant Francis Ingram Palmer, R.N., of H.M.S. Sylvia, belonging to the Admiralty Surveying Department, was appointed to accompany Consul Swinhoe's expedition of last year up the great river towards Chung-King,...730 miles above the treaty port of Hankow'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.