1898 · London
by Little, Archibald J.
London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company Limited, St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, 1898. 8vo, pp. xix, [1], 315, [1]; folding color map, frontispiece, 34 illustrations from photographs on 28 plates; original pictorial yellow cloth stamped in black and red on upper cover, in black on spine, t.e.g.; the covers lightly rubbed, a couple of leaves roughtly opened at the back, otherwise a very good, sound and clean copy. First published in 1888 with the map but without any plates. "Through the Yang-tse Gorges is Archibald Little's diary ... of his journey up the Yangtze River from Shanghai to Chongqing by a native junk boat in 1883. Little strongly advocated the introduction of steam travel on the upper part of the river between Yichang and Chongqing, a port open to Western trade. The upper Yangtze was full of gorges and rapids which made travel treacherous; Little's journey by junk boat took a month, whereas the journey by steamship would have taken only 36 hours. He was repeatedly rebuffed in his attempts to introduce steam travel to the upper Yangtze by the Chinese government, which he accused of standing in the way of modernisation. He successfully introduced a steamship on the upper Yangtze river in 1898" (OCLC). The last chapter here ("First Ascent by Steam" - 18 pages) is an account of that voyage.
(Inventory #: 67907)