known. The regions lying west of the Karakorum mountains have been visited by many travellers, and frequently described.

This outline of the mountain chains around and within the Chinese Empire, describes their principal features sufficiently to give an idea of the arrangement of the country. The proportion which is either mountainous or hilly is nearly four-fifths of the empire (if the vast desert of Gobi be left out of the estimate), and most of it will repay the husbandman, some parts of the hilly region in the provinces being among the most populous and fertile districts.

Between the Celestial mountains and the Kwǎnlun range on the south-west, and reaching to the Sialkoi on the north-east, in an oblique direction, lies the great desert of Gobi or Sha-moh, both words signifying desert or sandy sea. The entire length of this waste is more than 1800 miles, but if its limits are extended to the Belur-tag and the Sialkoi, at its western and eastern extremity, it will reach 2200 miles; the average breadth is between 350 and 400 miles, subject however to great variations. The area within the mountain ranges which define it is about 1,200,000 square miles, and few of the streams occurring in it find their way to the ocean. The whole of this tract is not a desert, though no part of it can lay claim to more than comparative fertility; and the great altitude of most portions seems to be as much the cause of its sterility as the nature of the soil.

The western portions of Gobi, lying east of the Tsung ling and north of the Koulkun, between long. 72° and 96° E., and in lat. 36° and 37° N., is about 1200 miles in length, and between 300 and 400 across. Along the southern side of the Celestial mountains extends a strip of arable land from 50 to 80 miles in width, producing grain, pasturage, cotton, and other things, and in which lie nearly all the Mohammedan cities and forts of the Nan Lu or Southern Circuit, as Kashgar, Oksu, Hami, and others. The Tarim or Yarkand river and its branches flows westward into Lop nor, through the best part of this tract, from 720 to 86° E.; and along the banks of the Koten river, a road runs from Yarkand to that city, and thence to H'lassa; here the desert is comparatively narrow. This part is called Han hai, or Mirage sea, by the Chinese, and is sometimes known as the desert of Lop nor. The remainder of this region is an almost unmitigated waste, and north of Koko-nor assumes its

most terrific appearance, being covered with dazzling stones, and rendered insufferably hot by the reflection of the sun's rays from these and numerous mountains of sand, which are said to move like waves of the sea. One Chinese author says, "There is neither water, herb, man, nor smoke ;—if there is no smoke, there is absolutely nothing." The limits of the western portion of the Desert are not easily defined, for near the base of the mountain ranges, streams and vegetation are usually found.

Near the meridian of Hami, long. 96° E., the desert is narrowed to about 150 miles, and this portion is also less level, more stony, and possesses some tracts affording pasturage. The road from Kiayu kwan to Hami runs across this narrow part, and travellers find water at various places in their route. It in fact divides Gobi into two parts, the desert of Lop nor and the Ta Gobi, the former being about 4500 feet elevation, and the eastern not usually rising as high as 4000 feet. The province of Kansuh has been extended quite across this tract to the foot of the Tien shan.

The eastern part of it or Great Gobi stretches from the eastern declivity of the Celestial mountains, in long. 96° to 120° E., and about lat. 40° N., as far as the Inner Hing-an; and its width between the Altai and the În shan range varies from 500 to 700 miles. Through the middle of this tract extends the depressed valley properly called Sha-moh (i. e. Sandy floats), from 150 to 200 miles across, and whose lowest depression is from 2600 to 3000 feet above the sea. Sand almost entirely covers the surface of this valley, generally level, but sometimes rising into low hills. Such vegetation as occurs is scanty and stunted, affording indifferent pasture, and the water in the numerous small streams and lakes is brackish and unpotable. North and south of the Sha-moh, the surface is gravelly and sometimes rocky, the vegetation more vigorous, and in many places affords good pasturages for the herds of the Kalkas tribes. In those portions bordering on or included in Chihlí province, among the Tsak. hars, agricultural labors are repaid, and millet, wheat, and barley are produced, though not to a great extent. Trees are met with on the water courses, but they do not form forests. There are no large inland streams in the part of Gobi north of China, but on its north-eastern borders are some large tributaries of the Amour. On the south of the Sialkoi range, the desert lands

reach nearly to the Chang-peh shan north of Liautung, about five degrees beyond those mountains. The general features of this portion of the earth's surface are less forbidding than Sahara, but more so than the stepps of Siberia or the pampas of Buenos Ayres.

The rivers of China are her glory, and no country can compare with her for natural facilities of inland navigation, and the people themselves consider that portion of geography relating to their rivers as the most interesting, and give it the greatest attention. The four largest rivers in the empire are the Yellow river, the Yangtsz' kiang, the Hehlung kiang or Amour, and the Tarim or Yarkand; the Yaru-tsangbu also runs more than a thousand miles within its borders. Of these magnificent streams, the Yellow river is the most celebrated, though the Yangtsz' kiang is the largest and most useful.

The Hwang ho, or Yellow river, rises in the Singsuh hai or Hotun nor (i. e. sea of Constellations), a marshy plain lying between the Bayan-kara and Kwănlun mountains, in which a great number of springs or lakelets unite in two larger ones called Ala nor, in latitude 35° N., and about longitude 96° E. Its course is so crooked after it leaves Ala nor, that it turns first south 30 miles, then east 160, then nearly west about 120, winding about the gorges of the Kwănlun; and lastly flows north-east and east to Lanchau fu in Kansuh, having gone about 700 miles in its devious line. From Lanchau fu, it turns northward along the Great Wall for 430 miles, till it is bent eastward by the Ín shan, on the edge of the table land, and incloses the country of the Ortous Mongols within this great bend. A spur of the Peh ling deflects it south, about longitude 110° E., between Shansí and Shensí for about 500 miles till it enters the Great Plain, having run 1130 miles from Lanchau fu. In this part of its course it becomes tinged with the clay which imparts both color and name to it; at the northern bend it separates in several small lakes and branches, and during this part of its course, for more than 500 miles, receives not a single stream of any size, while it is still so large and rapid in Shansí as to demand great precautions when crossing it by boats. At the south-western corner of Shansí, the Yellow river receives its largest tributary, the river Wei, which comes in from the westward after a course of 400 miles, and is more available, so far as means of navigation are now

had among the Chinese, than the whole of its mighty competitor. From this angular turn, the main stream flows on eastward about 650 miles, in some parts of Honan above the plain on its sides, and finally disembogues itself in solitude about latitude 34°,— bearing the character of a mighty, impracticable, turbid, furious stream throughout most of its long route. The area of its basin is estimated at 700,000 sq. m., and although its source is only 1290 miles in a direct line from its mouth, its numerous windings prolong its course to nearly double that distance. It is but little used by the Chinese for navigation, and the cities on its banks are in constant jeopardy of being submerged. Foreign skill and science are necessary to teach the people how to restrain its fury, and western steamers alone can stem its impetuous current, and make it a channel for commerce. In its progress, the Yellow river receives fewer important tributaries than any other large river in the world, except the Nile. The principal are the Wei and Lu in Shensí, and the Fán in Shansí, and the waters of lake Hungtsih in Kiangsu.

Far more tranquil and useful is its rival, the Yangtsz' kiang (i. e. Son of the Ocean), called also simply Kiang or Ta kiang, the River, or Great river; it is often erroneously named on western maps, "Kyang Ku," which merely means "mouth of the river." The sources of the Kiang are not well known, partly owing to the difficulty of ascertaining which of its numerous branches is the principal. So far as can be ascertained, three small streams on the south-western side of the Bayan-kara, in the meridian of Tengkiri nor in Tibet, longitude 89° E., and about 200 miles west of the Singsuh hai, unite to form the Murusussu (in Chinese, Muhlusu), which is soon after joined by three other streams, all of which may be considered its headwaters. There is no authentic account of its course from this union till it joins the Yahlung kiang in Yunnan, a distance of nearly 1300 miles; but Chinese maps indicate a south-westerly direction, through the gorges of the Bayan-kara and Yun ling, till it bursts out from the mountains in latitude 26° N., where it turns northeast. During much of this distance it bears the name of the Po-lai-tsz'. The Yahlung river rises very near the Yellow river, and runs parallel with the Kiang in a valley further east, flowing upwards of 600 miles before they join. Large rafts of timber are floated down both these streams, for sale at the towns

further east, but no boats of any size are seen on them before they leave the mountains. The town of Batang, in latitude 29° N., is the first large place on the river, the region beyond that being almost uninhabitable. The main trunk is called Kinsha kiang (i. e. Golden-sand River), until it receives the Yahlung kiang in the southern part of Sz'chuen, which the Chinese there regard as the principal stream of the two; beyond the junction, the united river is called Ta kiang, or Great river, as far as Wuchang fu, the capital of Hupeh, where it takes its best known name of Yangtsz' kiang. Its general course from this point is easterly, receiving various tributaries on both shores, and passing through several lakes, until it discharges its waters at Tsungming island, by two mouths, in latitude 32° N., more than 1850 miles from its mouth in a direct line, but flowing nearly 3000 miles in all its windings.

One of the largest and most useful of all the tributaries it receives in its lower course is the Kan kiang in Kiangsí, which empties through the Poyang lake, and continues the transverse communication across the provinces from north to south, connecting with the Grand Canal. The Tungting lake receives two large rivers, the Siang and Yuen, which drain the northern sides of the Nan ling in Hunan. These are on the south; the Han kiang in Hupeh, and the Kialing in Sz'chuen, are the main affluents on the north, contributing the drainings of the country south of the Peh ling. The Grand Canal comes in at Chinkiang fu, and from thence the deep channel of the Son of the Ocean, able to carry the largest men-of-war on its bosom, finds its way to the Pacific. Much of the silt brought down by this and the Yellow river is carried across to the Japanese coast, and is no doubt gradually filling up the Yellow sea. No two rivers can be more unlike in their general features than these two mighty streams. While the Yellow river is unsteady, the Yangtsz' is uniform and deep in its lower course, and available for rafts from Batang in the western confines of Sz'chuen, and for boats from beyond Tungchuen fu in Yunnan, more than 1700 miles from its mouth. Its great body and depth afford ample room for the largest ships 200 miles, as far as Nanking, and probably scores of miles beyond that city, where in some places no bottom could be found at twenty fathoms, and ships anchored in ten fathoms almost among the rushes; while the banks are not so low