n Richthofen, we are enabled now to
lay down the whole itinerary from Ch'eng-tu fu to Yun-nan fu with
confidence in its accuracy.

The Kin-sha Kiang or Upper course of the Great Yang-tzu, descending from
Tibet to Yun-nan, forms the great bight or elbow to which allusion has
just been made, and which has been a feature known to geographers ever
since the publication of D'Anville's atlas. The tract enclosed in this
elbow is cut in two by another great Tibetan River, the Yarlung, or
Yalung-Kiang, which joins the Kin-sha not far from the middle of the great
bight; and this Yalung, just before the confluence, receives on the left a
stream of inferior calibre, the Ngan-ning Ho, which also flows in a valley
parallel to the meridian, like all that singular _fascis_ of great rivers
between Assam and Sze-ch'wan.

This River Ngan-ning waters a valley called Kien-ch'ang, containing near
its northern end a city known by the same name, but in our modern maps
marked as Ning-yuan fu; this last being the name of a department of which
it is the capital, and which embraces much more than the valley of
Kien-ch'ang. The town appears, however, as Kien-ch'ang in the _Atlas
Sinensis_ of Martini, and as _Kienchang-ouei_ in D'Anville. This remarkable
valley, imbedded as it were in a wilderness of rugged highlands and wild
races, accessible only by two or three long and difficult routes, rejoices
in a warm climate, a most productive soil, scenery that seems to excite
enthusiasm even in Chinamen, and a population noted for amiable temper.
Towns and villages are numerous. The people are said to be descended from
Chinese immigrants, but their features have little of the Chinese type, and
they have probably a large infusion of aboriginal blood. [Kien-ch'ang,
"otherwise the Prefecture of Ning-yuan, is perhaps the least known of the
Eighteen Provinces," writes Mr. Baber. (_Travels_, p. 58.) "Two or three
sentences in the book of Ser Marco, to the effect that after crossing high
mountains, he reached a fertile country containing many towns and villages,
and inhabited by a very immoral population, constitute to this day the only
description we possess of _Cain-du_, as he calls the district." Baber adds
(p. 82): "Although the main valley of Kien-ch'ang is now principally
inhabited by Chinese, yet the Sifan or Menia people are frequently met
with, and most of the villages possess two names, one Chinese, and the
other indigenous. Probably in Marco Polo's ti