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On the Road to Tibet
Excerpt from On the Road to Tibet
When the wind was favourable we sailed, but it never is favourable for any length of time, on account of the huge serpentine bends which the river takes, sweeping as it does round three parts of a circle, to turn abruptly on itself and twist the other way.[2] When not sailing we tracked, with four or five men on the tow-line, and under these conditions thirty miles was a good day's journey.
Progress however, if not breathless, was steady for several days, and then came disaster.
The heavens were opened, down came the rain, and for three days the cloud canopy dripped mercilessly upon us. To sail was impossible, for there was no wind to track was out of the question. For the banks gave no foothold. Central and Western China had been very hardly handled by the unprecedented rains of early autumn, and in many parts of Hupeh, Honan and Shensi roads were impassable, river banks bursting, crops ruined, and food at famine prices.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
When the wind was favourable we sailed, but it never is favourable for any length of time, on account of the huge serpentine bends which the river takes, sweeping as it does round three parts of a circle, to turn abruptly on itself and twist the other way.[2] When not sailing we tracked, with four or five men on the tow-line, and under these conditions thirty miles was a good day's journey.
Progress however, if not breathless, was steady for several days, and then came disaster.
The heavens were opened, down came the rain, and for three days the cloud canopy dripped mercilessly upon us. To sail was impossible, for there was no wind to track was out of the question. For the banks gave no foothold. Central and Western China had been very hardly handled by the unprecedented rains of early autumn, and in many parts of Hupeh, Honan and Shensi roads were impassable, river banks bursting, crops ruined, and food at famine prices.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
145 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 3, 2021
2.5 - I found the descriptions of nature to be beautifully written and described, but i didn't care much for the opinions of the author towards the culture and people he traveled amongst.
September 25, 2014
This book is not like typical Kingdon Ward Books and is very slow and even in occasions to sluggish to continue with a smooth flow. The book basically roams around the Tibet-China border around the River Yang-Tze and tributaries, unlike the authors other books' area of Burma-Tibet border land. The book however in other occasions gives the reader the touch of the Artist the author was in terms of his landscapes as I can quote from the last chapter.
"XIV— TWO THOUSAND MILES ON THE YANG-TSE.
High ranges of mountains rose on every hand, and the air was filled with the roar of cataracts and spinning whirlpools ; the river, sometimes broad and agitated, sometimes slinking along quietly, still and and deep, between closely investing hills, seemed to be gathering itself for a spring. Whether calm and sedate or frolicking madly over the rocks, it was plainly working itself up for something better than we had yet seen. Sunset behind us over this wonderful river was always a blaze of colour, but we were speeding away from it even while it beckoned us back to the wild west; night with its moon-lit sky filled the gorge with rippling silver which danced over the gurgling water. So we drifted on past cities and mountains, past island temples and lovely pagodas, past orange groves and many a copse and spinney, dashing through rapids, whirling helplessly round in the big racing eddies which burst around and beneath us with the roar of approaching thunder: till early on 7th September we reached K'wei-chow-fu on the borders of Szechwan and Hupei, and saw before us the cliffs of Bellows Gorge towering to the sky, and the dark slit into which the river plunged........."
"Red life-boats, like large sampans, are moored at every •dangerous spot, ready to shoot out from their coves to the rescue of any unfortunate victim, but we do not require their aid nor do we pass any wrecks though there are any number of boats crawling up, or sometimes humming along with the up-river breeze, under full sail, quite as fast as we are travelling down with the current. The scenery is certainly fine, but it leaves us disappointed. Perhaps we had expected too much. True, we had never seen a river the like of this confined between such colossal cliffs, yet we had seen bigger rapids in unnavigable rivers, higher cliffs in mountain gorges, vaster ranges in the far west."
Overall I am feeling a little bit sorry for the book. Anyway shall try again this one. Also shall read other books on the same region.
"XIV— TWO THOUSAND MILES ON THE YANG-TSE.
High ranges of mountains rose on every hand, and the air was filled with the roar of cataracts and spinning whirlpools ; the river, sometimes broad and agitated, sometimes slinking along quietly, still and and deep, between closely investing hills, seemed to be gathering itself for a spring. Whether calm and sedate or frolicking madly over the rocks, it was plainly working itself up for something better than we had yet seen. Sunset behind us over this wonderful river was always a blaze of colour, but we were speeding away from it even while it beckoned us back to the wild west; night with its moon-lit sky filled the gorge with rippling silver which danced over the gurgling water. So we drifted on past cities and mountains, past island temples and lovely pagodas, past orange groves and many a copse and spinney, dashing through rapids, whirling helplessly round in the big racing eddies which burst around and beneath us with the roar of approaching thunder: till early on 7th September we reached K'wei-chow-fu on the borders of Szechwan and Hupei, and saw before us the cliffs of Bellows Gorge towering to the sky, and the dark slit into which the river plunged........."
"Red life-boats, like large sampans, are moored at every •dangerous spot, ready to shoot out from their coves to the rescue of any unfortunate victim, but we do not require their aid nor do we pass any wrecks though there are any number of boats crawling up, or sometimes humming along with the up-river breeze, under full sail, quite as fast as we are travelling down with the current. The scenery is certainly fine, but it leaves us disappointed. Perhaps we had expected too much. True, we had never seen a river the like of this confined between such colossal cliffs, yet we had seen bigger rapids in unnavigable rivers, higher cliffs in mountain gorges, vaster ranges in the far west."
Overall I am feeling a little bit sorry for the book. Anyway shall try again this one. Also shall read other books on the same region.
March 5, 2012
I'm a bit surprised by this book. I've read anthologies of his writing, so definite culling went on. It is his first [wrote 25] and I've another queued up so I have hope he left the ranting [politics, religion, ethnicity etc etc] aside and got on with plant hunting which was his life's calling and at which he was quite successful. He is noted for his near lyricism at description of the natural world, so I'm hoping he played to his strength and left jingoism behind. Otherwise, I'm sure someone has done another anthology!!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews