ii4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



by far the largest, and ending on the north in the Saddle Group, North 

 Saddle Island being in the same latitude as the low-lying and rounded 

 corner of Yangtse Cape. The most westward group is comprised by 

 the Volcano Islands, which lie approximately due south from Yangtse 

 Cape and about midway across the mouth of the bay. We shall 

 presently refer to this group as one of the places at which definite 

 observations of changing water-level have been made in studying the 

 birth of the bore. Westward of this meridian the bay shoals quite 

 rapidly in the southern half, and at times of low water, west of 12iy 2 ° 

 longitude (east of Greenwich) the mud drys for two miles from the 

 southern embankment. It was off the northeast corner of this ex- 

 tensive " flat " that H. B. M. ship Kite was lost. 



But the most marked shoaling and constriction in the figure of 

 Hangchow Bay has yet to be noted. As already stated, at Chapu the 

 bay is about eighteen miles wide. From this point inward the general 

 direction of the bay is southwesterly and safe navigation ends near 

 Rambler Island, which is about eleven miles from Chapu. Here the 

 width of the bay for water over six feet deep has narrowed to less than 

 five miles, and from here on inward for quite a distance the whole 

 estuary, with the exception of a very narrow region near the northern 

 bank, is a sandy shoal. Between Bambler Island and Haining is a 

 range of hills forming a promontory that extends well out, making the 

 general direction of the bay take a quarter turn and bringing it to the 

 northwestward. On this promontory is the town of Kanpu, and a 

 little beyond the projecting point of land and well out in the middle' 

 of the channel is a group of low tide-washed islands. Just at the 

 western end of this turn in the northern shore is a sharp indentation, 

 protected by a good-sized hill, which forms Bore Shelter Bay. It is 

 at these flats and along the meridian of this hill that an observer at 

 the Haining Pagoda gets his first glimpse of the bore. 



On account of the regular recurrence of the bore, junks going from 

 Chapu road to Hangchow take three days, and shelter first in Bore 

 Shelter Bay and second at Haining platform. Boats drawing over 

 three feet can not be used. The return from Hangchow to Chapu 

 road can not be safely accomplished under three tides in any boat. 

 Thus in spite of being situated on the main tributary of the bay of 

 the same name, the city of Hangchow, the capital of the rich and 

 populous province of Chekiang, the center of a great silk-producing 

 district and of the manufacture of the best silks, being the sole source 

 of the silk fabrics supplied to the Imperial household, and a great 

 center of Chinese culture and literature, has practically no direct con- 

 nection with the sea. There is a small canal connecting it with 

 Haining, but practically its whole export trade passes through Shanghai 



