No doubt engineering may succeed in removing some of the obstacles
and in minifying the dangers of this passage. Steam, too, may supply
another mode of traction to take the place of these teams of men.
A still revolution is in prospect, namely a ship canal or railway.
The latter, perhaps, might be made to lift the junks bodily out of
the water and transport them beyond the rapids. Two cities, however,
would suffer somewhat by this change in the mode of navigation,
namely, Ichang at the foot and Chungking at the head of the rapids.
The latter is the chief river port of Szechuen, a province having
four times the average area.
The great province of Szechuen, if it only had the advantages of
a seacoast, would take the lead in importance. As it is, it is
deemed sufficiently important, like Chihli, to have a viceroy of
its own. The name signifies the "four rivers," and the province has
as many ranges of mountains. One of them, the Omeshan, is celebrated
for its beauty and majesty. The mountains give the province a great
variety of climate, and the rivers supply means of transportation
and irrigation. Its people, too, are more uniform in language and
character than those of most other regions. Their language partakes
of the Northern mandarin. Near the end of the Ming dynasty the
whole population is said to have been destroyed in the fratricidal
wars of that sanguinary period. The population accordingly is
comparatively sparse, and the cities are said to present a new and
prosperous aspect.
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