experiment recently tried with satisfactory results at Hongkong might we think fairly be repeated in other parts of China, We allude to the establishment of a steam ferry running between the island and the main land.
It is not many months since some enterprising individual, with a steam Jaunch for which he had no present work, hit on the idea of ranning her with passengers across the harbour. The scheme paid beyond expectation the more frequently the boat ran across, the more her services seemed to be in demand, until at last a half-hourly service was established. It was then found that the original boat was too small, and we now learn that the Hongkong and Macao Steamboat Ca. have determined on placing one of their passenger boats, the Feiwan, to make regular trips between Victoria and the various villages and landing places at the opposite side of the har hour. Those who are acquainted with Hongkong need scarcely be told that these villages are situated in a mountainous district, possessed of no roads, and in fact far out of the usual highroads of native trade. That any traffic should exist in sucha neigh-Dbourhood is a wonder, rather than that it should be able to support the ferry tothe extent it has done. Yet here, as the local papers remark, facilities for intercourse have caused the developement of an unlooked-for traffic. Now what has been done in Hongkong under such unfavourable auspices, we cannot help thinking might be attempted in other parts of China, where the surrounding circumstances are much more favourable. At Shanghai, for instance, there are many crowded ferries across the river. Possibly the passage is too short to be suitable for the introduction of a steamboat. But the same cannot be said of the traffic between this and Woosung. Woosung is an important place in the boat trade of the district, It smells of the sea, and its inbnbitants are drawn from all parts of the coast. A Woosung passenger boat is a sight in China; every available space occupied with man, woman or child. Yet communication with Woosung under the present system is very irregular. Tides and winds interfere with the passage, and the Chi-aman who gets on board at Namtow can little calculate when he will arrive at the other end of his journey, thirteen miles or so off. If Hongkong can support a steamer to connect with the mainland, it certainly seems that Woosung could do far more.
Tt is, however, along the Yangtsze that the need of steam ferries is most urgent. Chinkiang is a case in point, Here the first great line of traffic from north to south crosses the river. The Yang-size is much exposed at this point, more especially in the winter months. The miserable native boats ure often prevented from plying for days at a time, and the only means of crossing the river are by mustering the boats belonging to a humane Society. Junks with cargoes have often to lie on an exposed shore for days together, being utterly unable to stem the force of wind and tide.
Kwachow, at the entrance of the northern section of the Imperial canal, is only some three miles from Chinkiang, yet the passage is at most times a difficult one for the native boats, In fact a boat stationed at Chinkiang for tonnage purposes alone would to all appearance find ample employment, independent of the very large passenger traffic waiting to be developed, At Hankow matters are almost worse. At one side of the river is the important town and foreign settlement of Hankow, at the other the provincial capital, Woochang. The sole means of communication between the two is. a wretched native ferry. In freshets or during a strong wind the passage becomes as dangerous as going down the China coast in a steamer, and atoll times it is slow and inconvenient, Indeed, so practically isolated are the two sides of the river that the two towns have come to be inhabited by an entire. ly distinct class of people. A Woochang man neither speaks nor looks like "his neighbour from Hankow; and we might venture to affirm that a very large proportion, possibly the majority, have never seen the foreign settlement at Hankow, except in a distant view across the mile and a quarter of intervening river. We have sketched out the peculiar cases of Chin.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.