Chinese; country viELAOii lining both sidks of a canat 



Section one-third of a mile long between two bridges, where in three rows of houses live 



240 families 



nel, where the stream bed is above the 

 adjacent country, in order to prevent 

 w^idespread disaster and to hmit the in- 

 undated areas in times of unusual flood. 

 In the province of Hupeh, w^here the 

 Han River flows through 200 miles of 

 low country, this stream is diked on 

 both sides throughout the whole dis- 

 tance, and in a portion of its course the 

 height of the levees reaches 30 feet or 

 more. 



Again, in the Canton Delta region, 

 there are other hundreds of miles of sea 

 wall and dikes, so that the aggregate 

 mileage of this type of construction 

 works in the Empire can only be meas- 

 ured in thousands of miles. 



In addition to the canal and levee con- 

 struction works, there are numerous im- 

 pounding reservoirs which are brought 

 into requisition to control overflow wa- 

 ters from the great streams. Some of 

 the interior reservoirs have areas of 

 2,000 and 1,800 square miles, and during 

 the heaviest rainy seasons each may rise 

 through 20 to 30 feet. Then there are 

 other large and small lakes in the coastal 

 plain, giving an aggregate reservoir area 



exceeding 13,000 square miles, all of 

 which are brought into service in con- 

 trolling flood waters, all of which are 

 steadily filling with the sediments brought 

 from, the far-away, uncultivable mountain 

 slopes and which are ultimately destined 

 to become rich alluvial plains, doubtless 

 to be canalized in the manner we have 

 seen. 



NEW LAND IN THE MAKING 



There is still another phase of these 

 vast construction works which has been 

 of the greatest moment in increasing the 

 maintenance capacity of the Empire — 

 the wresting from the flood waters of 

 the enormous volumes of silt which they 

 carry, depositing it over the flooded 

 areas, in the canals, and along the shores 

 in such manner as to add to the habit- 

 able and cultivable land. Reference may 

 be made to the rapid growth of Chung- 

 ming Island, in the mouth of the Yangtse- 

 kiang, and the million people now find- 

 ing homes on the 270 square miles of 

 newly made land which now has its ca- 

 nals, as may be seen in the upper margin 

 of map No. 2. 



935 



