L 265 j 



CHAPTEE XXXIII. 



TABLES OF DISTANCES. 



/^AREFUL revision of the distance tables as published in the first edition of this book 

 ^ fifteen years ago happily confirms their substantial accurac5% and it is hoped that the 

 present numerous additions to them will yet increase their usefulness. 



No two tables of creek or canal distances will be likely to be found to agree, for 

 discrepancies there must be as long as the China creek, more particularly the tidal creek, 

 pursues its devious way, and trust is placed in native ideas of distance which, as is pretty 

 generally known, are based so largely upon the atmospheric conditions of the hour: in fact, 

 whether the journey be made in fair weather or foul. The sailing speed of houseboats 

 varies considerably, still under favourable conditions the average tracking speed should be 

 about 3 miles an hour. In this connection it may not be out of place to mention a curious 

 fact possibly not very generally known. The average distance between the "hsiens" or 

 larger towns in this province of waterways is a stage of 90 //, or a Tsang ^ 5fi;^"i"M a 

 confirmation of which may be found in the well-known distances, from suburb to suburb, 

 between Shanghai and Soongkong, between Soochow, Wusieh, Changchow, Tanyang and 

 Chinkiang. This tsang, on the decimal principle, is again divided into 10 tracking stages of 

 9 //each, known as E Kiu —it "the nine." It is quite possible, therefore, that the ready 

 foreign reply of "3 miles an hour" to the very commonly asked question " what is the 

 average speed of the tracked houseboat ? " was originally, perhaps unconsciously, based upon 

 the long established native hour track of 9 //. But a great difficulty in obtaining anything 

 approximating as precise information as could be wished lies in the fact that what should 

 be the constant // is in reality a most inconstant measure of length, varying in its 

 degree in certain localities as much as in their way do the respective dialects of Ningpo and 

 Nanking. Similar difficulty was experienced by Pere L. Gain, a member of that great 

 establishment whose mission stations so thickly dot these provinces of Kiangsu and 

 Chekiang, and whose missionaries, incessantly moving from place to place, should be high 

 authorities on all questions of distance within them. In presenting his table of the principal 

 stations on the Grand Canal to the Sicawei headquarters he admits this difficulty of 

 acquiring accurate information, and plaintively adds that "Quel qu'ait pu etre notre soin 

 pour rediger correctement cet itineraire, il est probable qu'il nous est echappe de nombreuses 

 inexactitudes qu'on voudra bien nous pardonner." But his figures, arrived at by his own 

 exceptional means of obtaining information, differ but very slightly from those to be found 

 in the following tables. To wit, his estimate of the long distance between Hangchow and 



