March 28th.—Amongst the ancients, says Wu Ta-ch'éng, the art of map-making never reached the state of perfection which it has attained in modern times. The charts which have been made of the seaboard and of the Yangtze have proved of the utmost service in carrying on the work of river and coast defence, and captains of steamers rely upon their charts as guides in determining their course through the ocean. In making a sketch of a mountain it is necessary to fill in the whole outline, -and the ground covered by its base must be accurately surveyed in order to ascertain its dimensions; 80 in drawing up a chart of water the shoals and rapids must be marked and the configuration of the bed of the river must be accurately examined in order to ascertain its depth. In the case of the Yellow River a knowledge of the direction and windings of its course, and of its relative breadth at different points is an important element in arrange lana for its conservation. The charts hitherto made of the River have been mostly the work of Yamen underlings, and have merely given a rough outline without marking thedegreesof latitudeandlongitude or noting the distances. Memorialist has been at great pains to obtain the services of an expert in chart making, but. has completely failed to find one. there is no Person anvongst the ofcials or literati honan who possesses any exact knowledge of mathematics or surveying, and until a taste for these studies is introduced, no improvement can be expected in this respect. Memorialist therefore propos to establish in K'ai-feng Fu a Board of River Surveyors and with this object in view, he has written to the Viceroys at Tientsin and Canton and the Superintendent of the Foochow Arsenal asking them to select and send him twenty officers and students well acquainted with surveying and map making. In this way he will have a complete survey made in sections, and an accurate chart drawn up and printed, of the whole course of the River from Wei-hsiang where it enters Honan to its mouth at Li-ching in Shantung. This ho considers the moat important step in his task of re-organising the river works, A mere glance at such a map will shew at once the deflections of the course of the river, the breadth of the banke at different places, the points at which the force of the current is greatest, the sandbanks, the junction of its tributaries with the' main ream, the trend of the hills on both sides and the distance from each other of the different towns and villages on ita banks, while additional details can be filled in from time to time. As however the members of this new Board cannot be expected to come from a distance and undertake such a difficult task without some encouragement, Memorialist proposes as soon as they have arrived to forward a list of their names for record in the archives of the Board at Peking and requests that they may be held entitled to the same rewards as those granted to officers employed inaugurating the Telegraph Service. The request is supported by the Viceroy Li and the Governors of Honan and Shantung, Rescript by the Emperor: We sanction the transfer of a number of officials for the work of surveying and chart-making, but as the proposed establishment of a Board of Surveyors and the consideration of the rewards to be conferred upon them is premature and ostentatious, We command that no notice be taken of the suggestion.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.