CHINA. 



TtogrtM 



pillars about four feet high, and wa* decorated in differ- 

 ent pUcri with figures of elephants in marble, which ap- 

 peared to be well executed. Another ii mentioned by Mr 

 Barrow, which confuted of 90 arches, thrown acrott 

 the arm of a lake which joint the prcat canal, the ci n- 

 tral arches of which were about 30 feet high and 40 

 wide, and the whole length of which was nearly half a 



The rr.oit stupendous work of masonry in China ii 

 (be great wall, which separates the empire of China from 

 northern Tartary. The date of this remarkable fortifi- 

 cation is not easily ascertained, as certain parts of it ap- 

 pear to have been constructed at different times by the 

 pr.ncet of Tchao and Yen, about 250 years before 

 Christ ; but it was in the reign of the Emperor Shi- 

 boaog-tee, about 214 years before the Christian era, that 

 these separate portions were united, and the wall com- 

 pleted in its whole extent. It is said, that every third 

 man throughout the empire was summoned to assist in 

 the building ; that in those places, which were too steep 

 to admit or horses or carriages being used, the work- 

 men stood so close for many miles, as to be able to hand 

 the materials from one to another ; that, so diligently 

 was the work carried on, that the whole was finished in 

 the space of five years j but that, owing to the fatiguing 

 journies, and change of climate, which the labourers from 

 the distant provinces had to undergo, the greater part 

 of those, who were employed in the work died before its 

 completion. It begins at its eastern extremity with a 

 strong bulwark, or large pile of stone, raised in the yel- 

 low tea, and proceeds westward through the provinces 

 ft! Pe-tche-lee, Shansee, and Shensee, till it terminates 

 near the city of Kin, on the yellow river, in the impas- 

 sable mountains and sandy deserts, which begin from 

 that point to cover the western frontiers. It is carried 

 across rivers, vallirs, marshes, and over the top of the 

 highest mountains, without a single interruption in its 

 course, except by a ridge of inaccessible mountains near 

 the city of Suen, in the province of Pe-tche-lec, to which 

 it is closely united on each side, and by the river Hoang- 

 ho, which passes through it in its progress to the sea ; 

 while rivers of a smaller size find a passage by means of 

 arches like those of a bridge, without breaking the line 

 of building. Various calculations have been made re- 

 specting its extent ; but it seema to be generally agreed, 

 that, including its numerous windings, it cannot be esti- 

 mated at less than 15. K) miles in length. The founda- 

 tion consists of large square stones laid in mortar ; but 

 the rest of it resembles much the wall of Pekin, and is 

 composed of an earthen mound, cased on each side with 

 brick or stone. The top is paved with flat stones, and 

 is so broad in many places, that six horsemen may easily 

 ride abreast upon it. Where it passes over steep rocks 

 and elevated grounds, it is perhaps not above 15 or 20 

 feet in height j but in the vallies and plains, it is not less 

 than 30 feet high ; and in those places is rendered 

 doubly defensible by means of large projecting square 

 towers, at the distance of a bow-shot from each other. 

 It has been remarked, however, that, towards its western 

 iity, it is merely a mound of earth, and very defec- 

 tive in various places ; low and defenceless even in very 

 amilable situations ; while in other parts it is continued, 

 at an unnecessary cxpcncc, along mountainous ridges, 

 which present of themselves sufficiently insurmountable 

 obstacles to an invading army. It is, nevertheless, justly 

 accounted the raoit enormous fabric in the known 



world ; and it has been computed, that, including the 

 earthen part of the mound, it would furnish materials 

 sufficient to surround the earth, on two of its great 

 circles, with two walls, each of them six feet high and 

 two feet thick. It has been farther calculated, that all 

 the dwelling houses of Great Britain, supposing them 

 to am .unt to the number of l,bOO,(MX>, and to average 

 2000 cubic feet of masonry, would not be equivalent to 

 the buhd contents of this immense building. 



Nearly equal to this extensive work in grandeur, and Grind C- 

 superior in point of utility, is the imperial, or grand ca- na ' 

 nai. The Chinese refer its origin to a much earlier date 

 than that of the great wall ; but it does not appear to 

 have existed in its present improved state, and immense 

 extent, above *00 years. When Shec-tsco, the first em- 

 peror of the dynasty of the Mogul Tartars, fixed his re- 

 sidence at Pekin in 1267, and found that the conveyance 

 of supplies to that city, by sea, was attended with innu- 

 merable risks and inconveniences; he began the forma- 

 tion of the Yun-ho, or grand canal in 12t>9, which was 

 afterwards enlarged in 1369 by Tay-tsoo, an emperor of 

 the Chinese dynasty of Ming, and at length united with 

 the river Hoang-ho, and brought to its present state in 

 1M>9, by Yong-lo, one of his successors. It traverses 

 the province of Shang-tong, and a part of Kiang-nan, 

 and enters the river Hoang-ho at the city of Yang-kia- 

 yn. It resumes its course at Tsin-kian poo, passes by 

 Yang tcheoo-foo, and discharges itself into the Yan-tse- 

 kiang at Kooa-tcheoo. It begins, once more, on the 

 other side of the nver at Tsin-kiang foo, and continues 

 its progress to the city of Hang-tcheoo foo, where it 

 completes a tract of more than 300 leagues. It is thus 

 carried from north to south, in such a manner, as to cut 

 at right angles the three great rivers Eu-ho, Hoang-ho, 

 and Yan-tse-kiang, which carry off its superfluous water 

 to the sea, while it receives a sufficient supply from the 

 smaller streams in its course. It is bordered by strong 

 dikes, sometimes cased with stone, but commonly con- 

 structed of alternate layers of earth and straw. To ac- 

 commodate the general level of the canal to the several 

 levels of the feeding streams, it has been necessary, in 

 many places, to cut a channel to the depth of 60 or 70 feet 

 below the surface ; and, in other places again, to con- 

 struct embankmenu along swamps and lakes to the ex- 

 tent of several miles, and often 20 feet above the level of 

 the surrounding country ; BO that a sheet of water 200 

 feet wide, is seen rolling along at the rate of three miles 

 in an hour, on a level often with the tops of the walls of 

 the cities on its banks. The general slope of the country, 

 in the course of the canal, is from north to south ; and 

 the middle point is found to lie brtwcen the rivers Eu-ho 

 and Hoang-ho. It is chiefly therefore towards the north, 

 that the level is preserved by cutting the channel to a 

 considerable depth ; and towards the south, that it is 

 forced above the surface of the country by embankments 

 of earth and stone. In the more hilly and uneven tracts, 

 no locks are employed ; but the canal is interrupted by 

 an inclined plane ; and the vessels, by nv.-ar.s of large cap- 

 stans, are hoisted up the one side out of the water, and 

 lowered into it on the other. Where the canal is on a le- 

 vel with the surface of the Ik-Ids through which it Hows, 

 small ditches are dug in its banks to let some of the wa- 

 ter pass off into the adjacent soil, and bridges are thrown 

 over these openings to preserve the communication. As 

 an additional mean of preserving the level of the water, 

 there are flood gates placed at certain distances, compo- 



S*e, under the article lUiDir in tliii work, an account of some other remarkable Chinese bridged, and the observations of one of 

 W JMM eminent engineers on Ibc subject ef these structures. 



