18 A. 8. Bickmore—Journey through China. 
period and probably Triassic. My journey through the great 
coal fields of Hunan also gave me an opportunity of more 
narrowly defining its limits. The route herein described was 
the one chosen for a railroad between Canton and the southern 
parts of the empire, and Hankow and the central parts of the 
country. But no one had been through the mountainous re- 
gions and ascertained whether there was a break in the Meiling 
Range or whether great tunneling would be necessary. Hav- 
ing passed over the whole area, I am prepared to say that there 
is no physical feature that would render the construction of 
such a road a work of any greater difficulty there than in a 
very hilly land. The great obstacles to such work in every 
part of China are, first, their bitter hostility to foreigners, and 
secondly, their superstitious fears that any such work “ will af- 
_ fect the winds and rain and deluge their crops with floods or 
parch them with heat.” The prevalence of this belief, and the 
extent to which it influences all their actions, are most sur- 
prisin 
an excavation, the neighboring community draw up a petition | 
that this man be 
only give its consent, but also can and will guarantee to pro- 
tect such property or fully make up any damage the people . 
may do. When this can be done, it is as certain that railroads 
will pay there as that native and foreign merchants find it profit- 
able now to use steamers on the Yangtse and Canton rivers an 
along the sea coast. Then, and not till then, will these great 
improvements be begun in China, and her future promise to 
something more than a mere repetition of the past. 
Up to the date of this journey it had been a matter of spec- 
ation whether there was a water communication between the 
niver system of the Sikiang and that of the Yangtse. This 
