Hankow promises to become famous for its concessions. It already has five, all in a row—Englich, Russian, French, German, and Fapanese—aud two more, an American and a Belgian, are wanted, The new conces-ions do not seem to have harmed the English old one in the least, but quite the contrary. Property values are still rising, and a record figure was reached the other day when the Railway Administration paid Tls. 31,500 for the site, on No. 1 road, fon which Messrs. A. S. Watson and Co's hong stood before it was burnt. Two new hongs and several godowns are goi while the recently required exteusi being surveyed in order to mark out the roads, The most serious undertaking here will be to fill up the ground, not with streets and houses, but with mud as @ preliminary. The land by the Yangtze rises but a few inches above the summer level of the river, and in high water seasons is, of course, inundated. The early residents raised the present settlement by digging mud out of what is now the new extension,
ponds and holes. These are now being leaving a lange and varied selection of deep filled up by digging a similar series out beyond the wall which, before very long, will bago to be dealt with in the same way, as Hankow grows.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.