s in prospect, namely a ship canal or railway.
The latter, perhaps, might be made to lift the junks bodily out of
the water and transport them beyond the rapids. Two cities, however,
would suffer somewhat by this change in the mode of navigation,
namely, Ichang at the foot and Chungking at the head of the rapids.
The latter is the chief river port of Szechuen, a province having
four times the average area.

The great province of Szechuen, if it only had the advantages of
a seacoast, would take the lead in importance. As it is, it is
deemed sufficiently important, like Chihli, to have a viceroy of
its own. The name signifies the "four rivers," and the province has
as many ranges of mountains. One of them, the Omeshan, is celebrated
for its beauty and majesty. The mountains give the province a great
variety of climate, and the rivers supply means of transportation
and irrigation. Its people, too, are more uniform in language and
character than those of most other regions. Their language partakes
of the Northern mandarin. Near the end of the Ming dynasty the
whole population is said to have been destroyed in the fratricidal
wars of that sanguinary period. The population accordingly is
comparatively sparse, and the cities are said to present a new and
prosperous aspect. Above Szechuen
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lie the two provinces of Kweichau and Yuennan, forming one viceroyalty
under the name of Yuenkwei.

Kweichau has the reputation of being the poorest province in China,
with a very sparse population, nearly one-half of whom are aborigines,
called _shans_, _lolos_, and _miaotzes_.

Yuennan (signifying not "cloudy south," but "south of the cloudy
mountains") is next in area to Szechuen. Its resources are as yet
undeveloped, and it certainly has a great future. Its climate,
if it may be said to have one, is reputed to be unhealthful, and
among its hills are many deep gorges which the Chinese say are
full of _chang chi_, "poisonous gases" which are fatal to men
and animals--like the Grotto del Cane in Italy. But these gorges
and cliffs abound in better things also. They are rich in unexploited
coal measures and they contain also many mines of the purest copper
ore. The river that washes its borders here bears the name of Kinsha,
the river of "golden sands." Some of its rivers have the curious
peculiarity of flowing the reverse way, that is, to the west and
south instead of toward the eastern sea. The Chinese accordingly
call the pro