PROCEEDINGS. 491 
far as Shui Fa we turn up a small river called the Ik BH W Yung- 
ning Ho, near the county seat of the #4 2 BR Na-ch‘i Hsien 
Magistracy, Lat. 28° 48’ N., Long. 105° 23’ E., in the district 
of Lii-ch‘ou, Ssii-ch‘uan province. Junks from Ichang cannot go 
farther than Na-ch‘i Hsien, smaller boats are necessary, and the 
journey to Yung-ning Hsien takes about four days, according to 
the state of the river. 7k #f BR Yung-ning Hsien is the name of 
the solitary county in the department called A 7k H Ht B 
_ Hsii-Yung Chih-li Ting, Lat. 28° 08/ N., Long. 103° 18’ E. 
Ssti-ch‘uan province, on the frontiers of Kuei-Chou province. It is 
the centre of a considerable amount of trade: between both provinces. 
Here the land journey commences with pack animals and coolie 
carriers as on the other route, passing through the cities Pi-chieh 
Hsien and Wei-ning Chou, by a difficult and mountainous road 
crossing the fF jaf Ch‘ing Ho, a small river forming the boundary 
line between the provinces of Yunnan and Kuei-chow. The first 
city we reach in Yunnan province is the sub-prefectural seat of 
3 kG YN Hsiian-wei Chow, Lat. 26° 25’ N., Long 104° E., in the 
prefecture of Ch‘ii-ching Fa, arriving at Yiinnan Fu, the capital 
of Yunnan province, in twenty-one days. The road through Kuei- 
Chow being mountainous, and paved with rough limestone boulders 
which are as hard as flint and as smooth as glass, and as slippery as 
ice, is exceedingly tiresome and trying to man and beast. Officials 
and ordinary travellers prefer it however to the Shui-fu-Chao-tung 
route, but merchants with ordinary merchandise prefer the latter, 
as they thereby avoid the payment of dues in Kuei~Chow province. 
Traffic through Kuei-Chow is thus discouraged by the levying of 
dues on goods in transit. 
The K‘iang Hung Ssu Mao route was proposed by Captain Bpriye 
many years ago as being suitable for the building of a railroad 
from Burma to Yunnan, and it is no doubt the likeliest to prove 
profitable as a railroad speculation. The British Indian Gorere- 
ment may now encourage the building of railways through any part 
of Burma up to the Chinese frontier, and that line is said to be by 
far the easiest yet found. J 3 ff Ssii Mao Ting lies in Lat. 
23° 30' N., Long. 101° 40’ E., in the prefecture of Pu Erh Fa, 
