The roads as they exist are merely the customary tracks from one town or village to another, are never macadamized, an follow all the natural irregularities of the surface, They are never bounded by fences, are generally undrained, and when proceeding through level plains, are entirely Undefined and wander about from side to side, as puddles of water or artificial pitfalls dug by the neighbouring farmer compel the drivers of the Vehicles to vary their route. Every spring, in the northern provinces at least, a struggle for occupation takes place between the carters and the farmers, The farmer has, on the one hand, a perfect ight to plough up any road passing through his laud, and, asa watter of fact, generally exercises the right. On the other, the teamster has wr equal right to drive his waggons over the country at large, and equally, as a utter of fact, exercise To prevent the ruin of his own crops, and to force, if possible the track on ty his neighbours, the turmer then begins to dig pitfalls, along the most frequented route, compelling the teamster to move to one side, Asit becomes evident that he cannot continue these further without inflicting more damage than he is likely to suffer from, the passage of the carts w compromise is dually arrived at, and the tracks from your to year follow approximately the same lines. In the ives-covered provinces the circumstances of the case compel " somewhat different system. Owing to the number of ravines crossing the country in all directions, the limits of invention are. narrower than in the plains of Shantang or Chibli; the constant passage of carts keeps. the surface continually stirred up, and the wind catches the fine particles of sand, of which the ives is mumly posed, and carries them over the adjacent country. In consequence the tracks have 4 continual tendency to sink below the surface, and are often fwand occupying arrow passages sunk 90 or even 50 feet under the general level. In the eastern provinces, from like ewuses, the roads when passing through: vill or approaching bridge are ahuest invariably sunk below the surface, and the bride in such a cate becomes impossible Cor wheeled trottie, its abutments being raised many feet over the read level. In the Yangtze delta and the southern provinces generally the use of carts or waggons has long been superseded, and the only wheeled vehicle is the handbarrow with one wheel caged in the centre. To accommodate this the centres of the rusin roads are generally paved to a width of one to two feet with rough granite flagstones.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.