The Long White Mountain : or, A journey in Manchuria; with some account of the history, people, administration and religion of that country . rom 200 to 1,000 feet high, the intervening valleysbeing simply swamps. As in Devonshire, the engineersmade no attempt to lessen the gradients or improvedifficult places, but simply followed the old bridle-paths,with the result that carts have to go straight up hill-sides,which in any other country but China would be con-sidered absolutely impassable. And though some of theworst bits of bog had been rudely embanked or bridgedin many places, the bridges,
The Long White Mountain : or, A journey in Manchuria; with some account of the history, people, administration and religion of that country . rom 200 to 1,000 feet high, the intervening valleysbeing simply swamps. As in Devonshire, the engineersmade no attempt to lessen the gradients or improvedifficult places, but simply followed the old bridle-paths,with the result that carts have to go straight up hill-sides,which in any other country but China would be con-sidered absolutely impassable. And though some of theworst bits of bog had been rudely embanked or bridgedin many places, the bridges, which were only oak saplingsand turf, had in many cases collapsed. The second day SAlVSim TO NINGUTA AND HUN-CH(UN 335 it rained, and the hill-sides were simply a sneeessionof morasses. Over and over again we had all to collect,and shove behind, or to lift a cart out of a hole. Onebridge had a great chasm in the roadway, which theleading cart managed to avoid, but the second fellthrough, and we had to unload before the cart couldbe righted. The day ended with a pull up a hill thatseemed almost perpendicular, and the carts could go only. A BRIDGE. a yard or two at a time. Another day, going down asteep descent to the river, two carts upset, and the shaftof one was snapped. Then, after they were rightedand the shaft mended as best we could, the road tookns along the river-side between the cliff and the water,in so narrow a place that we had to turn to and buildup temporary revetments of stone, and then the cartscould only just squeeze past. A mistake of an inchand they would have toppled into the river, at that 336 TEE LONG WHITE MOUNTAIN place very deep. After that we thought we must beover the worst, but the soldiers shook their heads,saying, Wait till you come to the sky-scraping was the loftiest and steepest climb of all. Onecartman, who fancied himself as a whip, declared hecould do it with no assistance but men to scotch thewheels ; but the gradient was too stiff
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1888
