Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 125

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Topography of the Province of Hupeh.

FEB.

you draw near, you will find on the margin of the river only a shape- less bank worn away with freshes; and in the streets, stalls surmounted with palisades, and workshops undermined by the waters, or tumbling to pieces from age. The open spots between these ruins are filled with abominations which diffuse around a suffocating odor. No regulations respecting the location of the dwellings, no side-walks, no place to avoid the crowd which presses upon one, elbowing and dis- puting the passage, but all get along pell-mell in the midst of cattle, hogs, and other domestic animals, each protecting himself as he best can from the filth in his way, which the Chinese collect with care for agricultural uses, and carry along in open buckets through the crowd."

II. The department of Hanyáng lies west of the preceding, be- tween the river Hán and the departments of Ngánluh and Kingchau; its chief town is a little north of the provincial capital. There is a large trade here in paper. The lakes in the department produce a great variety of wild fowl, and the orchards of fruit in this region are cele- brated. Near the city itself lies the hill Tá-pich ★, Great Dividing Mt.

III. The department of Ngánluh lies north-west of the preceding, in the bottom lands of the Hin R.; these fertile fields supply the in- habitants with most of their breadstuffs. The capital partakes of the same commercial advantages as Hányáng.

IV. The department of Siángyáng lies north of Nganluh, border- ing on Honan, and its chief town is on the banks of the Hán R. The surface of the country is mountainous, except near the river; gold is washed out of the rivulets in some places in this department; and within the precincts of Kien chau is a very high mountain, consisting of twenty-seven summits, and inclosing twenty-four lakes in its circuit. Other mineral substances are drawn from these mountains. Siángyáng fú was known in the days of Confucius as the capital of the Tang state ; it afterwards belonged to the Tsú state.

V. The department of Yunyáng lies in the northwest of the pro- vince, between Honán and Shensí, and having Siángyáng and Ícháng on south. The mountains are said to produce tin. A high peak, call- ed Tieh-kiuh linglies in the extreme west of the depart-

ment.

VI. The department of Teh-ngán lies east of Siángyáng, and north of Hányáng, along the borders of Honin; the region is rough, like the districts further west. Among the productions of this department is the singular substance called peh lah, an excretion produced by an insect, whose larva envelops itself in wax; the inhabitants collect the wax, and use it for the same purposes as that of bees.