A CEUISE UP THE YANGSTZE IN 1858-59. 195 



over which the flat punt of the Chinaman could 

 hardly sail. Petty islets, such as Bush Island, had 

 grown to a considerable size, whilst, strangely enough, 

 many points well known to us in those days such as 

 One-Tree Point and Point Harvey were unaltered 

 in form and outline by either the force of current or 

 deposit of alluvial matter. In many places the dimin- 

 ished volume of water discharged by the Yangstze in 

 the winter as compared with the summer season, was 

 marked by the appearance of dry land where formerly 

 we believed channels of water always to exist. But 

 perhaps the most marked change in the delta was at 

 two points, the upper end of Tsung-ming Island, and 

 what was known as the Foo-shan Bar. The former 

 of these is a vast alluvial tract, reclaimed some three 

 centuries ago from the sea by enterprising Chinamen, 

 and lies in the centre of the delta, splitting the 

 Yangstze at its mouth into two broad channels, the 

 southern one of which is only known to Europeans. 

 In 1842 several islands were observed in the northern 

 channel, and noted by Captains Kellett and Collinson 

 in our charts ; one of these, of considerable extent, 

 between which and Tsung-ming there then existed 

 an eighteen-feet channel of water, was now incor- 

 porated with the greater island, a warning to us of 

 the changes we might expect elsewhere. At Foo-shan, 

 in the old channel, we found the bar to have heaped 

 up with gravel until it was perfectly impassable for 

 anything but a gunboat, and, after a long hunt, dis- 



