Volume of Water 255 



and isiiiall, obstruct the river throughout the whole distance 

 of nearly 500 nautical miles between Chung-king and Ichang, 

 is not less than five knots, a fall of twelve inches to the 

 mile between these two places cannot be considered ex- 

 cessive. This would give a total of 500 as the fall for these 

 500 miles, leaving only 130 feet for the 960 miles between 

 Ichang and the sea. The great fall in the river-bed is, as 

 is only natural, in the upper half of its course, where the 

 stream rushes as an unnavigable mountain torrent through 

 the defiles of the almost impenetrable ranges of Western 

 Szechuan and Thibet, and where Mr. Baber estimates the 

 fall at not less than six feet to the mile. The average 

 speed of the comparatively more tranquil lower half of the 

 river's current, say from Ping-shan, the city situated at the 

 head of the present junk navigation, some 1700 nautical 

 miles from the sea, is still, as Captain Blakiston points out, 

 double that of the Nile and Amazon, and three times that of 

 the Ganges. 



The volume of water brought down per second, as 

 measured by the same observer, is, at Ichang in June, 

 675,800 cubic feet: that at Hankow at the same period, 

 according to Dr. Guppy, of H.M.S. Hornet, being nearly 

 1,000,000 cubic feet, the increase being due to the influx 

 from the Tung-ting Lake, and from the Han River, the only 

 true afiluents between these two points. Compared with 

 these figures, it is curious to note that the water discharged 

 into the sea by the old familiar Thames is estimated at 

 2300 cubic feet per second. Reducing the figures given by 

 Captain Blakiston for Ichang in June, to the average of the 

 whole year, on the basis of Dr. Guppy's monthly observa- 

 tions in Hankow, we. find the discharge at the former port 

 to be actually 560,000 feet per second for the whole year 

 round, which would make the volume of water at Ichang, 



