By Dr, Artie Smith, The traveller on the Peking-Hankow railway who after the train has passed Chengtingiu glances out of the window of? his coupe wondering why there is so much water all about, cannot have the least conception of what the crossing of the Hut'o river is like when no railway bridge is available. This stream rises in northern Shansi receiving on its long course many tributaries,—until, when it emerges on the Chihli plain in the summer season, it is a turbid flood, with a heavy deposit of mud, sand, gravel, and even good-sized stones. There is no well defined channel, for when the bed is choked with sand the water resumes one or more of its old courses either to the southeast or to the southwest as chance directs. Thus it devastates a tract of otherwise fertile land at least a hundred English miles in width, to empty at Jast into one or more of the overworked streams debouching at Tientsin. Hundreds of thousands of people ave thus annually reduced despa, perhaps leaving their wrecked dwellings, putting their families and scanty belongings on a wheelbarrow, to find lodging wherever they can, or to swell the army of destitute in Peking or Tientsin.
Chihli alone is said to. have 80 rivers, almost every one of them needing scientific "treatment, but among them all probably the most destructive and unmanageable is the Hut'o. To cross it with carts or mule-litters often requires at least half a day, while it is frequently quite impassable.
The Fen river in Shansi seems at first sight of moderate size and of slight importance. But the plain of central Shansi at its widest is comparatively narrow, the unending mountain ranges on each being constantly in sight, -making the area of catchment of immense size. Temporary bridges of stakes supporting tree-trunks covered with stalks are put up for winter use, but they must be removed~ before the summer floods appear, or they will be lost. Lhen te traveller is obliged to take his chances of long and at times dangerous fords. Huge irrigation ditches stretch across the plain forcing travel to keep to the main road, however bad; and at certain (or rather uncertain) seasons unfathomable mud, wearisome sand-dunes, or - even worse quicksands must be reckoned with.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.