January 7th.—(Court Circular.) Audience was this day given to the Mongol Prin and Dukes.
Kiang-an, is A upon to retire, the (1) Shih Sung. -kuang, Grain Taotai of Governor-General Lin K'un-yi having reported him to be mad.
(2) Liu Chin-tang, Assistant Administrator of the New Dominion, resident in Kashgar, reports the receipt, upon the 14th November, from Tso Tsung-tang, of his seal of office as Imperial High Commiasioner. On the 17th of November, the memorialist despatched a memorial of thanks, and from that time commenced to use his new seal, destroying the wooden seal with which he had been originally provided in his capacity of Assistant Administrator of the New Dominion, Deputy Commander-in-Chief, and Baturn, with the title Fu Ling Ah, (8) The Governor of Kirin reports the conclusion of the winter hunt under the auspices of the Deputy Governor, and. the return of the latter to headquarter: The Deputy Governor left the provincial capital on the Sist of October, and proceeded to La-ha-o-yo and the country round about, with a force from Tsi-tsi-har, where he was met with another force from Pu-te-har, and thirteen hunts were held in company. The memorialist himself watched the officers and men as they pursued the game, and was satisfied with the manner in which they moved, and the rivalry that was displayed amongst them in following up the chase. At the close of each hunt, the memorialist bestowed rewards upon those who had shown themselves to be the best shots with the bow and the gun, and upon those who were courageous in the pursuit of the larger kinds of game. The memorialist returned to the provincial capital on the 18th of November.
(8) Postscript memorial from Chou Hengchi, describing the difficulty that has been experienced in passing the empty grain-junks across the Yellow River into the rand Canal on their return to the south, The difficulty of getting them up was already sufficiently great, owing to the want of water in the Wei River, and the fleet was subjected to numerous delays and obstructions. Orders had been given to close all sluices and dredge the channel in shallow places ready for the approach of the empty boats on their return, and in due course it was reported by the sub-Prefect of Lin-ching Chow that out of the 550 junks that went up laden, 210 had returned, the remainder having taken the sea-route back or been sold at Tientsin. While the water in the Wei River was high, and that in the Canal was flush with the bank, in the Wei River it had drained away to auch an extent that there was a wide difference in the level of thotwochannels. It was feared, therefore, that if the sluices were opened to allow
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.