Cost of Carriage of Goods, etc.-By the trade routes from Pakhoi to Nan-ning and here the carriage of a picul of goods per 100 li averages between 30 and 35 cents. From Lungcheo to places in Tung-king the cost is between three and four times as great, probably due to a lack of carriers and the dangers to be met with along the road from tigers and pirates. The standard for packages is one of weight.

So Mr. MORSE:

Where there is no route by navigable stream, the usual modes of conveyance are:

(1.)-For passengers, by chair;

(2.)—For goods, by poles on coolies' shoulders, and, for short distances on the plain, by two-wheeled ox-carts; wheelbarrows, with the wheel in front and shafts 6 to 8 feet long from axle to end, are also used on the plain. Commerce along the trade routes is carried on entirely by boats and porters.

Riding and pack-animals are not used, except in Yünnan, beyond Pei-seh; and there are no canals.

Travellers proceed at the rate of about 100 to 120 li a day, at a cost of about 600 cash ($0.60), allowing four bearers and no charge for use of chair.

Porters carrying goods take each two packages weighing not over 35 catties each (60 to 70 catties a man), and make an average of 70 li a day; for this he receives 150 cash. On this basis the cost of transport on a land route of 100 catties for 100 li is $0.35; on a water route it is $0.15 to $0.20. The standard is altogether one of weight; imported goods, going inland, have of course to be re-packed to reduce them to the portable standard. The value of the goods transported from Pakhoi to Nan-ning cannot be under three million dollars. The bulk may be got at by taking from two-thirds to threefourths of the imports at Pakhoi; e.g. it is probable that from 60,000 to 70,000 piculs of cotton yarn went in 1889 from Pakhoi to Nan-ning as a distributing centre,

Mr. GILMAN, in Hainan, says the means of conveyanceFor passsengers, land travel is by chairs or wheel-barrows. For goods, land conveyance is by carriers, ox-carts, or wheelbarrows.

The average cost for passengers, per 100 li, 200-250 cash for chairs; and for goods per 100 li, 7-12 cash a catty for carriers, less for wheel-barrows; about 3 cash a catty for carts where they can be used.

Mr. MAK, in Formosa, states:

E. (1) The usual mode of conveyance for passengers is by chair. On the road from Anping to the city of Taiwan Fu, which is a good road but only 7 li long, people are seen there to be conveyed by carriages drawn by horses as well as by jinrickshas drawn by man.

(2)—Most goods for the inland markets are carried there by coolies. There are no canals and the few rivers that exist are only navigable a short distance.

F.-The usual rate of travel per diem for travellers is $2. An average cost is about $4 per 100 li.

G.-Average cost of carriage for small quantities of goods per 100 li is about $1.30 per picul. The usual rate for large quantities is about 90 cents. Bulky articles pay per piece, while heavy goods pay per picul.

II & I-SAFETY OF ROADS, INNS, AND STATISTICS.

There is little new under these headings in the three southern provinces. Mr. CARL sums it up for Kwangsi, which may be accepted generally as a type for the south.

H.-Safety of Roads, etc.—Travellers in Kwangsi, either by water or land, are generally pretty safe, and there is little

danger of delays due to floods. Water in the river hereabouts rises rapidly and goes down quickly, hence even if a flood came the delay would only be for a few days, at the most. In Tung-king pirates and tigers are numerous and travellers therefore always try to go with military convoys. Between Phu-lang-thuong and Langson there are two convoys each way monthly. The most dangerous part of the trip is between Than-moi and Kep. Coolies are frequently being taken away by tigers, who are exceedingly bold, sometimes rushing into a camp, seizing a man, and off again before a shot can be fired at them.

I.—Available Inns.-Owing to the majority of travelling being done in boats such inns as exist along the roads are very bad and afford but little comfort to the tired traveller. One can find a place to spread his "P'u-kai" and to get some food and that is about all. In Tungking the want of suitable resting places along the road from Phu-liang-thuong to Langson is badly felt. Horses and men have to sleep in the same room, and little can be found in the food line. The French Military Officers along the route, however, generally entertain foreign travellers and these can therefore travel with comparative comfort.

While Mr. MORSE states:

H.-Heavy rains in the summer delay, but do not interrupt, communications. This country is much infested by brigands; and porters travel in bodies, armed for their own protection.

I. The country inns are such that they may be counted as nil.

Mr. MAK SZE CHE and Mr. GILMAN for Formosa and Hai-nan bear similar testimony.

IV.

THE LOWER YANGTSZE PROVINCES.

As explained in the introduction, we have here to deal with a district very dissimilar both ethnologically and physiographically from those we have hitherto described. Mainly in the former category it may be divided into the two ancient states of Wu comprehending the older Sü-cheo and Ch'u originally King-cheo #MM. The distinction between the two peoples in both habit and physiognomy is still marked, and they never, notwithstanding the common bond of the great river Yangtsze, seem to have coalesced. The northern portions of the provinces of Hupeh, Anhui (more properly Ngan-hwei) and Kiangsu being outside the navigable portions of the streams descending to the Yangtsze valley, may for the purposes of this notice be almost classed as northern, but the distinction in the people shows them to belong essentially to the same races as further south. On the other hand the upper waters of the Han draining the prefectures of Han-chung

and Hying-an, carry the waterways of the Yangtsze basin amongst a distinctly northern population. With these exceptions the Yangtsze and its tributaries below the lower gorges of Szech'wan mark out a special area, almost, except on the sea coast, shut out from the rest of China and the outer world.

The Yangtsze then is not only the common means of conveyance, but is also the bond of union between the five provinces, and to its broad bosom, with the exception of the Ts'ien-t'ang and a few comparatively small streams rising in southern Shantung, converges now the entire drainage. We say now advisedly, because for some six centuries, prior to 1854, the Yellow River flowed though a considerable portion of northern

Kiangsu, and prior to that the Hwai, conveying the drainage of northern Anhui and Kiangsu and a considerable portion of that of Honan, found by Hwai-an Fu an exit for itself to the sea. At an unrecorded epoch, probably about the 13th century, it commenced to flow through the Pao-ying and Kao-yu lakes and mingled in the subprefecture of T'ai Cheo with the Yangtsze.

Nor has the upper course of the Yangtsze been free of change even within historic times; but in the long course of ages, immediately antecedent to the dawn of history, the surface of the country must have presented a very different appearance from what now meets the eye. Then what is still called the Hu-kwang (the lake expanse) must have been a vast inland sea into which the young Yangtsze emptied its muddy waters, while the Han and the lesser streams carried down their burdens from the fringing mountain chains. Then also Kiangsi constituted a second land-locked sea; while broad sheets of water, spread over large tracts of the low lands of Anhui, and the delta of the Yangtsze was only represented by a low bank reaching from Yu-yao in Chehkiang nearly to the Lang-shan on the present left bank of the Yangtze, while behind lay a series of lagoons, the Chen-tsze and the Wu-hu, (five lakes) of early Chinese tradition. Through these channels the Ts'ien-t'ang and Yangtsze joined their waters, while Hang-cheo bay had as yet no existence; and waterways traversed by the primitive boats of the period connected the growing delta of the Yangtsze with the fertile plains of Ningpo, Shao-hing and Kia-hing prefectures in the adjoining province of Chehkiang, then the seat of the kingdom of Yueh; for a time after, 472 B.C., it had destroyed the kingdom of Wu the paramount state on the eastern seaboard. As the lakes and lagoons gradually became filled with the sediment brought down by the Yangtsze and its tributaries, the inhabitants had a care by keeping old channels