ROADS, Frou the memorials of Tseng Kwolits'uan and Li Hong-chang with regard to the famine in the northern provinces of Chihli, Shansi and Honan, we can form some idea of the difficulties under which the Administration of those provinces lies with regard to relieving the present distress, and are given some insight into the wretched means of communication which are intensifying the sufferings of the people, These sniferings are greatest in the western portions of the province of Shansi, though in Honan and in parts of Chibli they are represented as sufficiently severe, and this latter fact is more than borne out by the reports we receive from independent foreign sources in the last named province. As we stated above, Shansi, and especially the western portion of it, is in the worst condition; and this is but the natural conclusion at which any one would arrive after a careful study of the map, and the descriptions of the approaches to the province. Shansi consists of two elevated valleys, those of the Fuen-ho and the Yellow River, trending approximately north and south, and divided from one another and the plains of Chihli by formidable mountain barriers. On the south, these valleys border on the low lands of Honan, to which the descent is through a series of ragged defiles. The edge of the high plateaus, looked at from Hwei-king-foo, according to Baron yon Richthoven, presents the appearance of ting-fa, the head of navigation, and along a road as bad as most roads in China, all grain supplies have to be carried in carts or packed on mules. Near Hwob-luh the real difficulties of the road begin, in the passes through the hills, which extend for a distance of nearly 400 i to Shih-tieh-hien, 85 from 'lai-yuen. Of this portion of the road a recent traveller has given a vivid description. " Much of the road is along the dry bed of torrents, whose violence has impelled benevolent individuals to inscribe on the roads timely warning against taking refuge from storms under ledges liable to be swept by sudden torrents;—'Boware of the mountain water" zy IND [Li] 7K. A route, started ages ago, has been in incessant use ever since, and a track has thus been worn by pure attrition, There is not the slightest approach to a grade, The traveller is often confronted by precipices hundreds of feet in height, and is seldom out of sight of apparently bottomless gullies. In the autumn and winter, the valley roads generally follow the beds of streams; but what becomes of the roads when the streams are fall, is a standing puzzle to the traveller."* One part only of the pass has been repaired of late, and of this the traveller remarks:—If the whole pass were to be improved in the same manner, the results would meet the approbation at least of every foreign traveller." We have little doubt that none would have been better pleased than the two Governors, Li and Tseng, if their predecessors had carried out this useful reform.
As we said, however, the natural one trance to Shansi is from Hwei-king-fov, in Honan; and Li Hung-chang, in his memorial, gives us some information as to the means of access to that dis. trict. Naturally these.wonld be by menus of the Yellow River, the lower portion of which now occupies the bed of the Ta-tsing-ho, The Ta-ts'ivg-ho, as is well-known, falls into the Gulf of Pechili, some considerable distance below Taku. The stream is for the most part fairly deep and navigable, but at the time of Mr, Elias' explore. tion was obstructed by an artificial dom," by the Rev. A. Smith.
"Glimpses of Travel in 2 the Middle Bing:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.