The last day of our downward journey now lay before us. The wild country of the “Yao-tsa Ho” and the long zigzag reaches of the Ichang Gorge alone lay between us and the return to “Western civilization,” as represented by the advanced guard of foreigners residing in Ichang. As we slid down rapid after rapid in the hourly increasing current, it was difficult to realize the arduous struggle we had sustained with each projecting rock, in our toilsome ascent. We moored for the last night at Hwang ling Miao, the point in the upward journey that porphyry and granitic rocks are first met with, and going ashore for a stroll before sunset, I had my last look at the wild valley, with its scattered piles of huge rocks illuminated by the setting sun. This valley forms an exception to the continuous ranges of calcareous and sedimentary rocks through which the river cuts its way in its course from Ping-shan, the highest navigable spot to the plains of Hupeh, a distance of 800 miles. The range out of which this valley has been cut, and of which Hwang ling Miao marks the eastern termination, would seem to form the axial centre of elevation of the whole of this mountain district. On its flanks, to the east and to the west, lie the gently tilted strata of sedimentary rocks, through which the channel flows in clean-cut gorges.