1146 General Notes. [ November, 
which began to rule over the rest of China 200 B. C., the Canton- 
ese and Fokienese spoke of themselves as men of Tang. 
Mr. Colquhoun gives the area of the Shan States, which in- 
clude all Indo-China lying between Yun-nan on the north and 
the Burmah and Annam ranges west and east, as 340,000 sq. 
miles, 80,000 in the independent Shan States, and 260,000 in 
Siam. Little is known of most of this region, yet it must be 
thickly populated, since the Siamese records give 6,000,000 a5 
the number of able-bodied men in their territory. 
A correspondent of the North China Herald describes a jour- 
ney from Hankow, on the Yangtsze, to Chunching in Szechuea, 
720 geographical miles distant. The mountainous country 1s ei- — 
tered by the first of the celebrated gorges shortly after passing — 
Ichang, the highest port on the river open to foreign trade. In 
Szechuen the Yantsze is known as the Ch’uan Ho, or river of 
Szechuen, and flows through a succession of gorges in ranges — 
which mostly run north and south. At Wan-hsien, 160 geograph- 
ical miles above Ichang, a region of picturesque sandstone hills, l 
is reached 
The people are polished in manners and courteous to pare” : 
The province is suffering from drought at the same time Wn 
other in a sandstone formation. The towns and cities are 
upon the cliffs. dé from 
Mr. Carl Bock has recently traveled: from Bankok to t she : 
tiers of the independent Shan States. Tschengmai, Kiang pe 
immé as it is variously spelled, is the capital of the ha | 
tributary to Siam, and is a fortified town of about Gare than 
lying in a fertile plain of uninterrupted rice fields, at ng kI 
third of a mile from the Me Ping, which is here 400 yer 
is of great political and commercial importance, and con i 
trade of the States with Siam and British Burmah. The tef 
ests of the region are almost inexhaustible. From pe 
Bock proceeded to Kiangtsen, on the Meikong, and on 
of the independent Shan States. Mr. Bock’s further progi 
stopped by hostility aroused chiefly by his own indiscreti? 
railway from Bankok to the Shan frontiers would pass 
rich and populous districts. 
ruins to testify to their civilization, and appêi serail 
though the King of Cambodia is their nominal suzere™ 
