QUA-TCHOW. 
153 
The Yang-tse-kiang, a league in breadth, covered with numerous 
vessels of every shape and size, some laying at anchor, others plying 
in all directions, forms the fore-ground of the picture. 
The city of Qua-tchow did not answer the expectations raised by 
its advantageous situation. Its streets exhibited no characters of opu- 
lence, and its walls were in ruins. In the days of Kien-Lung, it 
flourished under imperial favour ; being situated between the Five 
gardens and the Golden hill; which were places of his frequent resort. 
A canal had been cut through the city to the point of land opposite 
and nearest to the Kin-shan, to facilitate his visits. A bridge also, if 
Chinese vanity could be believed, was in former times thrown from 
this point to the hill itself, but had left no remains as a monument of 
its existence. Since these golden days in the history of Qua-tchow, 
as its governor informed Mr. Morrison, the Tung-shway, or 44 fortune 
of the place,” had gradually declined. 
At Qua-tchow, the Embassy ceased to navigate the imperial canal. 
The descriptions given by Sir George Staunton and Mr. Barrow of its 
extent and structure, and of the characters of the country through 
which it passes, correspond so well with the observations of the per- 
sons of Lord Amherst’s Mission, that I have not thought it necessary 
to use the details on these points given in the Journals submitted to 
my inspection. 
This famous monument of industry, considered simply as a channel 
of communication between different parts of the empire, appears to 
me to have been somewhat overrated as an example of the immense 
power of human labour and of human art. In every part of its course 
it passes through alluvial soil, readily penetrated by the tools of 
workmen, and is intersected by numerous streams. It would be 
difficult to find any part of it carried through twenty miles of country, 
unaided by tributary rivers. The sluices which keep its necessary 
level, are of the rudest construction : buttresses formed of blocks 
of stone, with grooves fitted with thick planks, are the only locks of 
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