It isan easy run of bout 100 miles from 'Tzeliutsing to. Chengtu, the capital of Szechuen, 'The drought had been particularly severe in. this sector: the rice-fields on either side of the road were as dry as a bone. with great cracks in' the bird-baleed. mud. Many of the villages and towns we passed through were crowded "with "refugees, 1 rest confess that, although T kept a very careful lookout, I did not come across, during the whole of my drive Uhrough the province, a single corpse for sec among these famine refugees the skeletons of skin and bone one. expects to find in a bad famine are:
Tt may be, of course, that only the stronger famine sufferers manage (0 reach the motor road and that in the more distant districts one would, meet with much worse sights. But Tam bound to say that certain Chinese officials who were dealing, with the famine told me that its severity was caused by the indifferfence and bad administration of the provincial authorities rather than by equal physical conditions, Afler climbing to the pass in the range of hills that bounds the great Chengtu plain on the south a quite different Sight "met one's eyor—as far as eye could reach nothing but well-watered fields in which the paddy was just emerging, giving the 4 Chengtu ig beaut jo, Above pletursd fs the the watts of the ity plain the appearance of a vast lake. Thanks to the famous ancient irrization. works at Kuanhsien, 30, miles orth of the capital, the Chengtu plain never lacks water even in the Worst years of drought, At this place the Min River istles from the mountains through a wide gory a mest. scientifically planned system of dykes, sluices and aquenets, its waters are diverted over the whole plain.
"These irrigation works are said to have been perfected by a certain Li Erh-wang (Li the Second Prince) in the time of the Han dynasty. His famous saying. still to be seen en Eraved ona. rock in the temple at jen "Dig out the channels, do not raise the banks" shows that hho knew something about rivers in might well be taken to ties in other putts Kuanhsien, anyhow, been strictly adhered to for the last
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.