Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 127

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Topography of the Province of Iúpch.

FEC.

herbs, and grains, with building and cabinet woods, are taken from its fields and forests; while great numbers of fowls and fish are obtained from its lakes and rivers. The manufactures of insect wax, bamboo pa- per, crystal and stone ornaments, and ardent spirits, are famed through- out the empire.

Still, notwithstanding these resources, its inhabitants suffer at times from famine. The following letter, written by a Chinese, contains an account of the calamities which befell this region some years since. “In the month of May, 1831, our river swelled and burst its banks with so much violence in all the plain, that a vast number of dwellings, large and small, were torn from their foundations, and carried away by the waves; their fragments collected together would hardly have served to cook a meal. The bodies of the persons swept off by this deluge were as numerous as the plants which showed themselves above the surface of the waters; while many of those who escaped, perished in the highways from famine, and found their graves in the maws of birds and dogs. Young men fled to other provinces; parents lost their children, and husbands were separated from their wives. Mothers, overcome by hunger and fatigue, abandoned their sobbing infants in the road, or died leaving their little ones still clinging to their dresses. How sad were these sights, and no one able to afford relief. Most of the old men perished in the valleys, but some, who escaped, stretched them- selves groaning in the paths, while others, a little stronger, sought the nearest caverns, where they reared huts of straw, and lengthened out their days with herbs or carrion. Others drifted about in boats, seeking fish and worms to save themselves from starvation; but, naked and un- protected, exposed to the wind and snow, they lost their strength, and their emaciated bodies became dry as the hay in the field. In these unhappy times, they were unable to raise any money; nobody would buy their fields, nor let them have food; even those who offered their wives for sale found no purchasers; and destitute of resources, many of them perished miserably. The living moved about among the un- buried dead, few of whom received the rites of sepulture. This year (1835) we have suffered from drought and locusts, so that our fields are baked and eaten up." Another observer remarks that the great plain through which the Yangtsz' flows, at this time appeared like a vast sea, and scores of villages were entirely swept away.

The greatest portion of this province is level, and some of it is lower than the great river which flows through it. The northern part is high- er, and a low chain of mountains beyond the line of Honán forms the watershed between the valleys of the Yellow and Yángtsz' rivers.