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BASIN OP THE SI-KIANG. 247
round about this settlement quite a large native city has sprung up. Here the
naturalist Swinhoe founded a learned society in 1857, which has done much good
work iu various branches of natural history.
The trade of Amoy, about as extensive as that of Fuchew, consists mainly in
opium taken in exchange for tea and sugar.
Here also emigrants are shipped, and
a large passenger traffic has been developed between this place and Singapore.
Amoy, which is one of the most enterprising cities in China, is now provided with
repairing docks large enough to accommodate steamers of 2,000 tons burden.
The chief island in the harbour consists partly of a barren mass of granite,
but the rich district on the mainland round about the large cities of Changchetr
and Tiuifffin has been converted into a vast garden.
BASIN OF THE SI-KIANG.
(I'KOVIXCES OF KWANOSI AND KwANOTUNfi.)
WITHIN the torrid zone is comprised about one-half of this region, which in its
climate, products, and inhabitants presents the sharpest contrasts to the rest of the
empire. During the historic period the Si-kiang basin has been more than once
politically independent of the northern rulers, and here the formidable Ta'iping
revolt had its origin about the middle of the present century. The province of
Kwangtung, comprising about one-twentieth of all the inhabitants of China, still
exercises a political influence out of proportion to its population, and its capital,
said to be the largest in the empire, is regarded as in many respects acting as a
counterpoise to Peking, at the opposite extremity of the state. While the
" "
Northern Residence watches over the Mongolian plateaux, the cradle of so
many invasions, Canton, or " the Eastern City," almost half Indian in its climate,
maintains the relations of the Chinese world with the peninsulas and islands
watered by the Indian Ocean.
North of the Si-kiang valley the various mountain ranges, known by a
thousand local names, and to which Richthofen gives the collective name of Nan-
shan, develop, as in the Yang-tze basin, it series of parallel ridges running
south-west and north-east, with large intervening breaks. Conspicuous amongst
tljese is the Ping-vi-shan, said to rise above the snow-line. The northern chains
are believed to have a far greater mean elevation than those in South Kwangtung,
which skirt the course of the Yu-kiang, stretching thence parallel with the gulf
far into Tonking. Beyond the lofty and massive Loyang they are pierced by the
Si-kiang, the gorges here formed by this river constituting
the natural frontier
between the two provinces of Kwangsi and Kwangtung. Other ridges, running
mostly in the same north-easterly direction, occupy the eastern region of Kwang-
tung, whence t hi >y arc eon tinned into Fokirn. One of these begins at the very gates
of Canton, here forming the picturesque group of the Peiyun-shan (Pak-wan-shan),
or " White Cloud Mountains," whose slopes are .covered with countless tombs.
Farther on the Lofu Hills, 4,000 to 5,000 feet high, are clothed with a forest
vegetation, in the shade of which the 15uddhist monks have built their monasteries.