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south about 1,200 geographical miles, with an average breadth from east to west of nearly 20° of longitude, or something less than the extent north and south. Perhaps no country in the world, of the same magnitude, can be considered upon the whole as more favoured in point of climate. Being situated, however, on the eastern side of a great continent, China follows the general rule which observation has sanctioned in attributing to regions, so placed, an excess of both cold and heat at opposite seasons of the year, which its precise position in regard to latitude would not lead us to expect. In the month of September, near Peking, Lord Amherst's embassy found the thermometer occasionally above 90; while the huge solid blocks of ice, which were at the same time carried about for use, and exposed on the stalls, proved the severity of the cold in winter. In the Yellow sea, during the month of July, and at 35° north latitude, the temperature of the water at 40 fathoms proved to be 65°, while that of the air was between 80° and 90°. Even at Canton, the southern extremity of the empire, and nearly in the latitude of Calcutta, the mercury frequently falls below freezing-point during the nights of January, while in summer it sometimes, though not often, rises to 100°. Notwithstanding these apparent extremes of heat and cold, the climate must be generally characterized as highly salubrious-a circumstance no doubt arising in great measure from the extension of cultivation and drainage. As a confirmation of the observations of Humboldt, in his treatise of Isothermal lines, it may be added, that the French missionaries were struck by the resemblance which the climate and products of northern China and Tartary bore to those of the east coast of North America; and that the wild plant ginseng, long a monopoly of the Emperor in the Manchow country, has been imported in large quantities by the American ships to Canton, to the great surprise of the Chinese.

The whole surface of China is varied in elevation, rising generally in terraces from the sea towards the west, but there would seem, at the same time, to be no mountains of very remarkable height. The principal chains consist of two. One of these extends from Yun-nân along the borders of Kuei-chow and Kuâng-sy, passing to the north of Canton province, where a road is cut through the Mei-ling pass, which has been described in both our embassies: it then takes a north-east direction through Fokien, and terminates in Che-keang. The larger portion of the ridge to the north-west of Canton province forms the inaccessible country (at least to the native Government) of the Meaou-tse, who have never entirely submitted to the Tartars. Even in Chinese maps their country is left a blank. The second principal chain of mountains extends from Sse-chuen to Shensy, causing the Yellow river to make an abrupt bend northwards through the Great wall. There are, besides, mountains of considerable elevation westward of Peking, towards Shân-sy province, but the plains from which they rise are little raised above the sea.

The two principal rivers of China occupy a very high rank in the geographical history of the globe. Taking the Thames as unit, Major Rennell estimated the proportions of the Yangtse-keang and Yellow river at fifteen and a half, and thirteen and a half respectively, and they are secondary only to the Amazons and the Mississippi. The Yangtse-keang, the river, or the "son of the sea," has been by some people styled the Blue river, but there is no such name for it in Chinese. It rises in Kokonor, the country between Thibet and China, not far from the sources of the Yellow river; turning suddenly south, it makes an abrupt bend through the provinces of Yun-nân and Sse-chuen, where it takes the name of the "Golden-sanded river;" and then flowing north-east and east, it subsequently makes a gentle

bend southward, and receives the superfluous waters of the Tong-ting Hoo, the largest lake of China; thence in its course towards the sea, it serves as a discharger to another large lake, the Poyang Hoo, in Keang-sy province; after which it runs nearly northeast, and flows past Nanking into the ocean, which it reaches exactly under the thirty-second parallel of latitude. This great stream runs with such a strong and prevailing ebb, that Lord Amherst's embassy found great difficulty in sailing up its course towards the Poyang lake, being unable to make any way at all, except with a strong north-easterly breeze. The flood tide was felt no higher than Kuachow, below Nanking.

The Yellow river rises also in the country of Kokonor, but soon turning as abruptly north as the Keang does south, it passes across the Great wall and makes an elbow round the territory of the Ortous; passing back again across the wall, it flows due south, and forms the boundary of Shân-sy and Shen-sy; whence it turns sharply eastward and reaches the sea in latitude 34°. From the excessive rapidity of its stream, this river is nearly unnavigable through its greater length. In the old maps of China, the Yellow river has been represented as flowing into the gulf of Pechele, north of the Shantung promontory. If, then, in the construction of the canal under Koblai Khan, its ancient course was turned, it is possible that this violence to nature has occasioned the constant recurrence of the dreadful accidents which attend the bursting of its artificial, but ill-constructed banks and dikes. It is a source of perpetual anxiety and heavy expense to the Government, and there is tax on the Hong merchants at Canton expressly on this account. The enormous quantity of mud held in suspension by the waters of the Yellow river (whence its name) causes depositions at its mouth which tend rapidly to lessen the depth of water. It is remarkable that the

two great rivers of China, which rise at a small distance from each other, after taking opposite courses to the north and south, and being separated by a distance of full fifteen degrees of latitude, should reach the sea within two degrees of the same point.

The coast of China, south of the promontory of Shantung, is generally bold and rocky, except at the points where the Yellow river and Yangtse Keang empty themselves. The province of Peking is a sandy flat, and the gulf which skirts it extremely shallow, so that a large ship cannot approach the shore within many miles. The whole coast of the empire abounds in safe and commodious harbours, of which those on the south have been accurately surveyed under the East India Company. The east coast, however, though very correctly traced in the missionary maps, has still to be nautically surveyed for the purposes of shipping. Generally speaking, from the mouth of the Peking river to Chusan, the sea has been found to be as free from dangers as in any part of the world.

For the internal commerce of the empire, however, the Chinese are rendered almost wholly independent of coast navigation by their Imperial canal, which in point of extent and magnitude of undertaking is, as well as the Great wall, unrivalled by any other works of the kind in the whole world. The canal, as we have already had occasion to notice, was principally the work of Koblai Khan and his immediate successors of the Yuen race. In the MS. of a Mongol historian, named Rashid-ud-deen, written in A. D. 1307, and made available to us by MM. Von Hammer and Klaproth, there is the following curious notice of it :"The canal extends from Khan-balik (Peking) to Khinsai* and Zeytoon; ships can navigate it, and it is forty days' journey in length. When the ships Kingsze, or capital, the present Hangchow-foo, the residence of the Soong dynasty.

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arrive at the sluices, they are raised up, whatever be their size, by means of machines, and they are then let down on the other side into the water." This is an exact description of the practice at the present day, as may be seen by reference to the accounts of the two English embassies.

It must be observed, however, that although the canal has been generally considered to extend from Tien-tsin, near Peking, to Hangchow-foo in Chekeang, being about 600 geographical miles, the canal properly so called, that is, the Chă-ho, or "river of floodgates," commences only at Lintsing-chow in Shantung, and continues beyond the Yellow river. The principal river that feeds it is the Wun-ho, rising from the Taeshan in Shantung, and falling into the canal at its highest elevation, in a line perpendicular to its course. The waters of the river striking with force against a strong bulwark of stone that supports the western bank, part of them flow to the northward, and part southward; at this point is the temple of the "dragon king," or genius of the watery element, who is supposed to have the canal in his special keeping.

One principal merit of this great work is its acting as a drain to the swampy country through which it flows, from Tien-tsin to the Yangtse Keang. Being carried through the lowest levels, and communicating with the neighbouring tracts by floodgates, it has rendered available much that would otherwise be an

irreclaimable swamp. As it is, however, some individuals of the embassy, in passing through this desolate flat in 1816, were laid up with intermittents of rather malignant type. The large city of Hoae-gan-foo, near the Yellow river, extends for about three miles very much below the level of the canal. In passing along its dilapidated walls, upon which we looked down from our boats, it was impossible not to shudder at the idea of any accident occurring to the banks of

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