Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 309

1842

Positions of the British and Chinese Forces.

201

high mountain-range (one of the outmost of the off-branches of the Himalayas) wherein it has its source. Under the triple distrbution of hardened ground, firm sands, and quick sands, these deposits of centuries have so narrowed the stream in its progress onward, thai the deep channel that has been left on its northern edge has been found to flow with a rapidity, which even the steam vessels, when sent out to survey were unable during the spring tides to stem.

A stone causeway, built and kept in repair with much labor and the utmost exertions of Chinese engineering skill, serves on the northern bank to keep out the encroachments of river and sea from the generally flat country that lies between this place and the Yángtsz' kiáng,-a country everywhere intersected with streams, rendering it rich and fertile in the highest degree, and at the same time sufficiently diversified with hills to add beauty to the scene, and to make it in all respects one of the most lovely and interesting parts in the whole empire of China.

The sand banks on the southern shore reach nearly to Chinhái,- not many miles to the westward of which the unfortunate ship Kite was lost in 1840, and her crew conveyed to 'Tsz’ki and Yüyáu, and thence to Ningpò. The river Tsáungò rising in the centre of the Chekiang province flows northward, almost in a straight line, into the embouchure of the Tsientáng or Hangchau river; and thus makes a slight break in the line of these sand banks, to examine which commander Collinson has recently been sent out, but with what success he has met we have yet to learn. Communicating, too, with the river of Ningpò by means of a canal, that extends likewise from the Tsáungò, westward, past the city of Sháuhing, and ends at a place directly opposite to Hangchau, a line of commnication by inland waters is thus afforded between the British position at Chin. hái and Ningpò, and the head-quarters of the Chinese force at that provincial capital,-a line which has been twice described to us,— first, by the PP. Bouvet, Fontenay, and others, on their route from Ningpo by way of Hángchau to Peking in 1687,—and then, by a portion of lord Macartney's embassy proceeding in an opposite direc- tion, from Hángchau to rejoin their ship at Chusan, in 1793. The embankment and causeway, on the northern shore of the Tsientáng river and embouchure, extend from Hángchau, with little interrup- tion to the knot of hills that encircles the bay and town of Chápú,— passing by the ancient Canfu (Kánpú) of Mohammedan travelers, before it reaches this the modern seat of the rich trade with Japan : and nearly parallel with this road runs a canal, its banks adorned at short distances with prettily wooded villages