Adventure, sport and travel on the Tibetan steppes . the customs. At first the officials insisted upontheir producing receipted bills for all their instruments,cameras, etc.; but, as our travellers had not these bills withthem, it was finally agreed to accept their statement thatthey had purchased them in Shanghai for their own officials insisted, however, on their having a permit, fortheir arms and ammunition, from the Viceroy of the went round to see if the British Consul could help themin obtaining this, but he had gone off on a shooting trip andhad left no one to act
Adventure, sport and travel on the Tibetan steppes . the customs. At first the officials insisted upontheir producing receipted bills for all their instruments,cameras, etc.; but, as our travellers had not these bills withthem, it was finally agreed to accept their statement thatthey had purchased them in Shanghai for their own officials insisted, however, on their having a permit, fortheir arms and ammunition, from the Viceroy of the went round to see if the British Consul could help themin obtaining this, but he had gone off on a shooting trip andhad left no one to act in his absence. This left them in rathera hole; but, on their calling on the officer in command of thegunboat, he kindly telegraphed to the Viceroy, and aftersome days delay they finally got started. 54 Hankow to Chcntu. Having a small boat they only had a crew of twenty men ;some of the larger junks have crews of over lOO men. Thejunks are propelled, when crossing the river, by oars andsweeps, and if the wind is favourable they spread large sails. C. H. MEARES AS HE LEFT HANKOW, JAN. 1908. which carry them along at a rapid rate. Wherever the banksallow, they are towed up by gangs of trackers, harnessed tothe end of a long rope made of plaited strips of bamboo. Theseropes are wonderfully strong, and they need to be, for theweight of a heavily-laden junk at the end of a rope half a 55 sport and Travel on the Tibetan Steppes. mile long in a rushing current is tremendous, and often onemay see a large gang of trackers on all fours, hanging on withtheir hands as well as their feet, just holding their own oradvancing an inch at a time. After leaving Ichang the river in many places is hemmedin by huge cliffs more than 2,000 feet high on both sides,and high up on the face of these cliffs a tiny path has beencut out, along which the trackers crawl. This is very dan-gerous work, for, if the junks swerve off into the current,the men are jerked from their precarious foothold into theriver,
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