being repaired, and bridges
reconstructed. When an exodus takes place from Szechuen to this
province, there is little reason why Yunnan should not become one of the
richest provinces in China. It has every advantage of climate, great
fertility of soil, and immense mineral resources hardly yet developed.
It needs population. It needs the population that dwelt in the province
before the rebellion involved the death of millions. It can absorb an
immense proportion of the surplus population of China. During, and
subsequent to, the Taiping rebellion the province of Szechuen increased
by 45,000,000 in forty years (1842-82); given the necessity, there seems
no reason why the population of Yunnan should not increase in an almost
equal proportion.

On the 22nd we passed Lu-feng-hsien, another ruined town. The finest
stone bridge I have seen in Western China, and one that would arrest
attention in any country in the world, is at this town. It crosses the
wide bed of a stream that in winter is insignificant, but which grows in
volume in the rains of summer to a broad and powerful river. It is a
bridge of seven beautiful arches; it is 12 yards broad and 150 yards
long, of perfect simplicity and symmetry, with massive piers, all built
of dressed masonry and destined to survive the lapse of centuries.
Triumphal archways with memorial tablets and pedestals of carved lions
are befitting portals to a really noble work.

On the 23rd we reached the important city of Chuhsing-fu, a walled city,
still half-in-ruins, that was long occupied by the Mohammedans, and
suffered terrible reprisals on its recapture by the Imperialists. For
four days we had travelled at an average rate of one hundred and five li
(thirty-five miles) a day. I must, however, note that these distances as
estimated by Mr. Jensen, the constructor of the telegraph line, do not
agree with the distances in Mr. Baber's itinerary. The Chinese distances
in li agree in both estimates; but, whereas Mr. Jensen allows three li
for a mile, Mr. Baber allows four and a-half, a wide difference indeed.
For convenience sake I have made use of the telegraph figures, but Mr.
Baber was so scrupulously accurate in all that he wrote that I have no
doubt the telegraph distances are over-estimated.

We were again in a district almost exclusively devoted to the poppy; the
valley-plains sparkled with poppy flowers of a multiplicity of tints.
The days were pleasant, and the sun shone brightly; e