Mandalay to Momien: A narrative of the two expeditions to western China of 1868 and 1875, under Colonel Edward BSladen and Colonel Horace Browne . f he wasonce there, he would never return to Yunnan. On July 20th we started for Sanda, the usual diffi-culty as to porters having compelled me to leavebehind the collecting boxes for specimens, with twoof my collectors in charge, until carriage could beprocured. We crossed the Tapeng above its junctionwith the Taho in ferry-boats, the boatmen at firstrefusing to convey us unless paid five thousand cashbeforehand. This attempt at extortion was resis
Mandalay to Momien: A narrative of the two expeditions to western China of 1868 and 1875, under Colonel Edward BSladen and Colonel Horace Browne . f he wasonce there, he would never return to Yunnan. On July 20th we started for Sanda, the usual diffi-culty as to porters having compelled me to leavebehind the collecting boxes for specimens, with twoof my collectors in charge, until carriage could beprocured. We crossed the Tapeng above its junctionwith the Taho in ferry-boats, the boatmen at firstrefusing to convey us unless paid five thousand cashbeforehand. This attempt at extortion was resisted,and the dispute was ended by our taking forciblepossession of the boats, when the boatmen at oncegave in, and worked with perfect goodwill andactivity till all the party were safely over. We thenset out in a body for Sanda, the road at first leadingalong the top of some old river terraces deeply chan-nelled by mountain streams, which w^ere crossed bytwo narrow planks laid side by side. Our ponies,however, crossed them with ease, except the onewhich Gordon had brought from the plains, andwhich was unused to such acrobatic exploits; so it. A VALLEY LANDSCAPE. 255 grew nervous on a bridge over which it was beingled, and disappeared head-over-heels in the deepgully beneath. Wonderful to relate, the animalbroke no limbs, and shortly reappeared a littlefurther down, trembling, but unhurt, on the riverterrace below. Two miles beyond the place wherethe Tapeng had been forded on the upward journeywe descended towards the level centre of the valley,at this season under water, the road being carriedalong a substantial embankment built to keep backthe floods. The whole extent of the valley wasclothed in exquisitely fresh verdure, in beautiful con-trast to the dark mountains which towered like aprotecting wall on either side, while alternate cloudand sunshine fully displayed the beauty of the land-scape. Now deep shadows of giant clouds flitteddown the mountains and over the sunny plain
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1876
