Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 182

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Topography of Húnán.

MARCH,

had added a false bottom to them, brought over the Japanese in them. They had a sharp keel, and were able to beat against the sea; in these they feared neither a head wind nor one on the quarter, and their sail- ing was so much improved, that they could now make the passage in a few days.

(To be continued)

ART. IV. Topography of the province of Húnán; its area, popula- tion, lakes, rivers, mountains, productions, &c., with a list of its departments and districts.

TEE southern of the Two Lake provinces is called Húnán And though larger in extent, is less fertile and populous than Húpeh. It lies between lats. 25° and 30° N., and longs. 109° to 114° E. of Greenwich; and is bounded north by Húpeh; east by Kiángsi ; south by Kwangtung and Kwángsí, from which it is divided by the Nán-ling ; and west by Kweichau and Sz'chuen. The arca is estimated at 74,320 square miles, being a little smaller than Kwangtung, and rather larger than Kiángsí. The population was reckoned in 1812 at 18,652,- 507 inhabitants, which gives an average of 251 persons to a square mile; according to these data, Húnán is the eleventh province in res- pect of population, and the seventh in point of size, of the eighteen.

The surface of the country in the northern departments is lével, and many hundreds of square miles are covered with water, or are below the level of the Yangtsz' kiáng; this, while it affords great facilities for irrigation, is also a source of great danger when the banks of the rivers are overflown. The southern part of the province is rough, rising on the frontier to lofty peaks, in whose intervals hardy moun- taineers have long maintained a partial independence of the Chinese authorities. The Chinese population of these regions is mostly found along or near the bottoms of the rivers.

The rivers of Húnán are all of them tributaries of the Yangtsz' kiáng, and most of them are so large as to afford facilities of transpor- tation to the inhabitants of towns lying even in the southern districts. The Great river itself only touches the province in the northeastern corner, where it receives the waters of the Tungting lake, and then flows northeasterly into Húpeh. The largest stream is the Siáng kiáng

I, which rises on the northern declivities of the Nán-ling, and as it flows northward, collects the drainage of the eastern half of the province, and empties into Tungting lake at Siang-yin hien