Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 188

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Topography of Chekiáng

Marci

fü. Beyond this range, two other rivulets, gushing from the hills, flow south into Fukien. On one of these stands the town Kinyuen.

Táhiáh is the next river worthy of notice. This name seems lo be applied only to that part of the river which is between Ningpò and Chinhái. One of its principal branches is the Yáu, “a river of the breadth of the Thames between London and Woolwich, mean- dering through the most fertile vallies, bounded by hills of various forms and heights, and some stupendous mountains. Nothing can be more pleasing and romantic.'

The branches of the Tsiungò spring from several ranges of hills on the south of Sháuhing fú.

On the imperial map, instead of Sanhin kau we have Sánkiáng kau, i. e. mouth of the three rivers. This communicates, if we may trust to our maps, dircetly with Sháuhing, and there with other streams, and with Mirror lake or Kien hú. Steamers probably will find their way up both this and the Tsáungò.

The Tsientang is the great river of the province, and the only one known to have been visited by Europeans in modern times, previously to the late expedition. From Hingchau to the sea it has never been examined. Its branches, and the canals that run into it, are very numerous. On one of those which come in from the south, colonel Benson and captain Mackintosh proceeded, in small barges, to Yü- yan. A party of gentlemen, going to visit these barges, rode round the eastern part of Hángchau city, and over a pleasant plain to the bank of the river. There they mounted wagons, drawn each by three buffaloes abreast, the wagoner riding on the middle one. Coming to the water they plunged in without hesitation, and proceed- ed till within their depth, when a small boat took the travelers to the opposite side of the river, from whence they went in chairs to the canal about a mile distaut.' Captain Mackintosh and the others, as they procceded in their first day's course, passed through a cham- paign country, richly and completely cultivated like the garden grounds near London, though perhaps more fertile. He observed a solid hill of rock, at least three hundred feet high, which was hewu into plain sides or faces, from whence were cut blocks of any shape or size. "This stupendous rock was in the neighborhood of a large city, to whose best buildings it must have, no doubt, contributed." This city must have been Sháuhing. The grape vine was seen, along the sides of the canal, in great quantities, "cultivated for food," not for wine. In three days the party arrived at the city of Loo-chung, when they changed their inland barges for pinks of about sixty ton-