364 Geographical Notices. 



along nearly 300 miles of its track, to visit the tomb of the great sage 

 Contucius, which is to be seen at Kewfoo, in the charge of his own de- 

 scendants, a family with a pedigree of 2500 years, dating from the time 

 of the sage himself. Mr. Morrison also visited Tsenan, the capital, and 

 other places in the hitherto unexplored province of Shantung, and the 

 journey took these travellers over 700 miles of country, for the most part 

 new to Europeans. Six months later, two other foreigners set out iu an 

 opposite direction, and travelled overland from Teentsin to Moukden, the 

 capital of Manchoo Tartary. They were struck by the manner in which 

 this once Tartar country has been virtually converted into a Chinese pro- 

 vince by the superior energy of the Chinese emigrants, and report that the 

 Manchoos, even in this their native land, have lost their ground entirely 

 in all parts of the country where anvthing is to be made by agriculture 

 and commerce; and that those who remain, by adopting Chinese man- 

 ners, customs, and language, have become, to all intents and purposes, 

 Chinese, and have been absorbed into the predominant race. Later in the 

 year, in November and December, an expedition through the two north- 

 ern provinces of China, Pe-chih-le and Shan-se, was undertaken by 

 Messrs. Richards and Slossin. Starting from the same point— Teentsin- 

 they appear to have ascended the high plateaus to the north of Peking, 

 and to have skirted the Mongolian steppes until they reached Shan-se. 

 They travelled in this province as far as its capital Tai-yuen, and then, 

 turning westward, re-entered Pe-chih-le, and visited Paou-king, the capi- 

 tal of the latter province, on their way back to Teentsin. The journey 

 occupied the traA'ellers 46 days, during which time they appear to have 

 crossed the Great Wall four times, finding it in a state of decay that may 

 be feared is typical of the country of which it is the chief monument, 

 and they estimate the total length of their journey at 1560 English miles. 

 Ihe flourishing and populous condition of most of the country through 

 which they passed accounts for the success of the new nothern port ot 

 Teentsin, the foreign trade of which, in the first year of its being opened, 

 has reached the considerable sum of two millions sterling. 



In the centre of China, four gentlemen— Messrs. Dickson, Thorburn, 

 Beach, and Bonney— travelled, in the month of April, from Canton to 

 Hankow, a distance of Y56 miles, which they performed in 18 days, 

 their journey differing from those above recited as being made entirely 

 by water, with the exception of one day's land travel across the roountaiD- 

 range that divides the province of Kwangtung from Hoo-nan. Follow- 

 ing the course of the north river in the first-named province, and the 

 Seang river in the latter, they thus traversed both those provinces from 

 south to north, and were the first modern explorers of the great luV 

 ting lake, by which they reached the Yang-tze and Hanko^v. In ^^^?^ 

 kiang, Mr. Baker, having recently ascended the Tseentang river, and vi^^ 

 ited the celebrated green-tea districts of Nganhwuv, has again gone ov 

 ground previously travelled by Mr. Fortune, but to find in this instan*^ 

 that the previous prosperous condition of those important tea distr 

 has disappeared before the rebel scourge, and that scenes of industry ha 

 been replaced by desolation and destruction. . , ^o 



In the south of China, the Rev. Dr. Legge was ihe first foreigner w 

 *scend, in April of last year, the east river in the Kwangtung province 



