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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The Bore Wail at Haining, showing the Sea Foot. 



average 250,000 taels per annum, which has led many people of this 

 region to call this sea-wall " China's Second Great Sorrow," giving 

 place to only the Yellow Eiver as her " First Great Sorrow." 



For purposes of management and repair the wall is divided into 

 three major divisions with a superintendent over each. These divi- 

 sions are again divided into many sections about a mile long, and for 

 each mile there are at ordinary times four to six watchmen who patroj 

 their section much as railroads are patrolled. 



The first cost of construction must have been enormous, and the 

 mere existence of the wall suffices to show that it must have been of 

 vital importance and that the land it reclaimed and now protects must 

 have been of immense value to justify such an expenditure. 



As it exists to-day its total length is one hundred and eighty miles, 

 and for one third of this distance it is faced, as at Haining, with 

 heavy blocks of granite and varies from twenty-five to thirty feet in 

 height above low water. Each successively higher layer of granite 

 slabs recedes about five inches, thus forming steps, a very welcome 

 arrangement when, after descending to get camera views of various 

 parts of the wall just before a bore was due, we had hastily to retreat 

 before the oncoming flood. 



The main difficulty in maintaining an efficient sea-wall would seem 

 to be to have an outer footing adequate to break the first violence of 

 the incoming bore and to prevent the undermining of the foundations 

 of the main bunding — in fact it would seem essential that the tides 



