X Preface to the First Edition 



years ago, which connects the Government coal-mine 

 of Kai-ping with the nearest canal, is the only road 

 in existence. Trunk-lines running north and south 

 are said to have been authorized, but as long as the 

 Government eschews foreign aid they are not likely 

 to be built. A line running east and west presents 

 almost insuperable difficulties, owing to the precipitous 

 mountains and deep gorges into which the whole 

 country west of Ichang is cut up. Hence the 

 necessity of turning the great natural highway of the 

 Yang-tse to the best advantage. Of the great gain 

 to trade, and to British manufacturing interests more 

 especially, which the cheapness of intercommunication 

 between Eastern and Western China would effect, I 

 have spoken more at length in my twelfth chapter. 



I must not conclude without paying a tribute of 

 admiration to Captain Blakiston and Dr. Alfred 

 Barton, for their valuable and accurate work, " Five 

 Months on the Yang-tse." These energetic pioneers 

 preceded me over the same ground just twenty years 

 before. Nothing has altered in the interval, and but 

 for the fact that their want of knowledge of the 

 language debarred them from free intercourse with 

 the people, and so cut them off from many interesting 

 social facts, the publication of this journal would have 

 no raison d'itre. 



Archibald John Little. 



Ichang, July i6ih, 18S7. 



