They have spanned the torrent with a powerful iron suspension bridge, 100 feet long by ten feet broad, swung between two massive buttresses and approached under handsome temple-archways.
Mists clothe the mountains--the air is confined between these walls of rock and stone.

Population is scanty, but there is cultivation wherever possible.

Villages sparsely distributed along the mountain path have water trained to them in bamboo conduits from tarns on the hillside.
Each house has its own supply, and there is no attempt to provide for the common good.

Besides other reasons, it would interfere with the trade of the water-carriers, who all day long are toiling up from the river.
The mountain slope does not permit a greater width of building space than on each side of the one main street.

And on market days this street is almost impassable, being thronged with traffickers, and blocked with stalls and wares.