We then came to a lagoon, and eventually the brow
of the hill was reached. Thus the Wuchai Valley is arrived at, where,
owing to a collection of water, the road is often impassable to man and
beast. Often during the rainy season there is a lagoon of mud or water
formed by the drainage from the mountains, which finds no escape but by
percolating through the earth and rock to a valley on the east of, and
below, the mountains forming the eastern boundary of the Wuchai Valley.
To Chao-t'ong is fairly level going.
Considering the road, it was not unnatural that my men gibbed a little
at the eleven-day accomplishment. I had a long parley with them,
however, and agreed to reward them to the extent of one thousand cash
among the three if they did it. Their pay for the journey, over
admittedly some of the worst roads in the Empire, was to be four hundred
cash per man as before, with three hundred and thirty-three cash extra
if the rain did not prevent them from getting in in eleven days. They
were in good spirits, and so was I, as we walked along the river-bank,
where the poppy was to be seen in full flower, and the unending beds of
rape alternated with peas and beans and tobacco.
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