To the Editor of the Sin,—I have lately accomplished a journey from Chinkiang to Tientsin by what in accordance with custom and in defiance of etymology may be called the overland route, and Ihave much pleasure in communica: ting to you a short account of my oxperiences, which I trust.may prove of some slight interest, though the same journey has often been described by previous travellers.
I was accompanied by the same inter-prefer who was with me on my last journey, but on this occasion as I had to pass through portions of the famine-stricken district, I provided myself with an ample stock of provisions instead of trusting to the country for supplies.
This trip like the last was undertaken entirely on my own account, with a view to obtaining a knowledge of the country from personal observation.
'A considerable amount of the information which I obtained, if published at all, must appear in some other form than a letter, but I may go so far as to say, that while on ing last trip from Hankow to Canton everything which I saw confirmed me in the belief that I was travelling along what must before long be the route of one of the main railways of China; on this trip I gradually came to the conclusion that I had not hit upon the proper route for a line to connect Peking with the Yangtze. I do not say for a moment that a line would be impracticable or useless, but merely that, unless I am much mistaken, a very much better route can be found elsewhere if it is looked for.
Grand Canal, undoubtedly, follows the natural line of water communication, and it is to the improvement of this that the energies of the Government ought to be directed.
The establishment of steamboat communication between Shanghai and Tientsin has made it possible for the Government and the people to submit to what would otherwise be the almost intolerable nuisance of having the Canal dry for months st
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.