Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 437

1850.

Topography of Sa'chuen.

309

XIX. The inferior department of Tsz' lies between Chingtú and Süchau fú, easterly; it was once attached to the former, and its chief town lics on the Chung R., S.E. of the provincial capital. XX. The inferior department of Mien was also partitioned from Chingtú fú, but is situated farther north, between Lungngán and Tung chuen in the banks of the R. Pei, in a rich, accessible, and salubrious part of the province. In their productions, these depart-

ments resemble those adjacent.

XXI. The inferior department of Máu lies north of Chingtú, be- tween the preceding and Tsáhkuh ting, on the east bank of the R. Min. It formerly belonged to Chingtú fú, and its chief town is about 60 miles from the capital.

XXII. The inferior department of Yúyúng occupies the extreme southeastern part of Sz'chuen, adjoining the provinces of Honán, Húpeh, and Kweichau, in a rugged and unimportant part of the province; most of the department is in the valleys of the Wú kiáng

or Black R.; a range of high hills divides them from Húpeh, forming at the same time the boundary of the province.

XXIII. The inferior department of Chung formerly belonged to Chungking fú; it is situated east of that department, and adjoining Kweichau, on the north bank of the Yángtsz' kiáng. It is in Fung- tú hien in this department, that the ho-tsing or fire wells occur, and which have become so generally known among the Chinese people, that the name Fungtú has come to mean hell; the following account of this curiosity by Rev. M. Imbert will explain the application. These subterranean fires sometimes produce frightful earthquakes; one is mentioned as occurring in 1788, which destroyed a hundred thousand persons, and many towns.

"On the sixth of Jan, 1827, I arrived at Tse-liú-tsing (i. e. Running-Water wells) after traveling eighteen leagues in my thick soled shoes, guarded with cramp-irons an inch long on account of the slippery, clayey roads. This small station contains only thirty cominunicants. But I found here a marvelous natural wonder, and the greatest effort of human industry I have yet seen in my long travels-an extinguished volcano.

"This place is among the mountains on the border of a rivulet, and con- tains, like Wú-tung-kiáu, salt-pits dug in the same manner as previously described; there are here more than a thousand of these wells containing salt water. Moreover each pit contains an inflammable air, which is con- ducted through bamboo tubes. It is kindled with a candle, and the flame can be blown out with the breath. When about to draw up the salt water, the fire is put out, for otherwise the air ascending in large quantities with the water would produce an explosion. Four pits in one valley, emit fire in a manner truly frightful, but produce no water, and here doubtless is the centre of the volcano. These pits originally contained water, but it having ceased flowing, the people bored on for about a dozen years to the depth of three thousand