Parker, of H.M.'s Consular service, upon the condition of the trade now curried on between Hankow, Ichang and Chungking, have excited much attention, Chungking is the com. mercial outrepdt and contre of trade in Szechuen, and it is hoped that before long means will be provided for bringing this town into ready, safe, and inexpensive communication with At present, under favourable circum. stances, during tou months of the year, the time required for taking goods or passengers from Ichang to Chungking is 30 days. The distance between the two points is 860 to 880 miles. An exact mileage cannot be given, as the course is devious, and the boats are at one moment in the stream and at another they have to hug the banks. The navigation is difficult for about 100 miles. The difficulties, as a rule, are not in the steep gorges, but are generally situated between the gorges. The velocity of the current may be taken at the mean of six knots, but at some points there is a clear fall of the water, caused by steep rocky ledges in the river bed. In the last days of Tone, all through July, and occasionally even in August, the freshets caused by melted snow are sudden and fierce, and make navigation of the river not only tedious, but precarious and dangerous.
Chungking is, in round figures, about 1,400 miles above Woosung, and from 360 to 880 above Ichang. The position of the region is, in @ geogras phical sense, very remarkable, If one end of a divider is put in the middle of the Yangtsze gorges—which
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.