-are in a most wretched condition.
The miserable annual makeshifts which enable the tribute rice boats to reach Peking have been omitted now for two years, and the unusually light rainfall makes travel that way almost impossible. It will be a great pity if the canal is allowed to continue to go to ruin. It passes through rich and coal field, of which it might become a great densely populated regions, and taps a large
distributor.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.