Untitled

272
EAST ASIA.
and has some large metallurgic works, including a mint over two hundred years old,
which before the revolt issued coins to the yearly value of about 4,000. A hill
towards the north-west is crowned by a copper temple, which was spared by the
rebels because it commemorated the national King Usankwei, who dared to resist
the authority of Kang-hi. Still farther north another hill on the Sechuen frontier
is occupied by a group of buildings, including a church and seminary, which the
Catholic missionaries have converted into a formidable stronghold against the
incursions of the Mantze tribes.
The Leang-shan highlands, on the common frontier of Kweichew, Sechuen, and
Yunnan, are occupied by a peaceful population
of Buddhists, Mohammedans, and
aborigines, who continued to live
Fig. 129. YUVNAX.' in perfect harmony throughout the
ate i = 1,000,000.
seventeen years of the late civil
15 Miles.
war. Here one of the chief mineral
products is a salt of lead employed
in porcelain painting, and exported
by the Yang-tze route as far as
Kiangsi. In the eastern section of
the province draining to the Si-
kiang basin are several important
places, such as Chungching-fu and
Kdihoa-fu. Farther south stretches
an extensive lacustrine district,
where the fresh-water tarns have
no visible outlet, although the two
large lakes, Ching-kiang and
Kiangshwen, communicate through.
an artificial canal, over a mile
long, cut through a quartzose
sandstone hill.
The towns in the southern dis-
trict drained by the Red River and
its head-waters are chiefly mining
centres, although Yuen-kiting, on
the left bank of the Hoti-kiang, as the main stream is here called,
large entrepot for agricultural produce. In this rich tropical
is also a
district the
mango, guava, citron, orange, and other southern fruits flourish by the side of
the more hardy peach, apple, pear, walnut, and chestnut. Farther east the
chief places are Lingnn-fii and the busy mart of Jlan/mo (Mang-ko}, at the head
of the navigation of the Red River, the depot for the teas, cottons, and silks of the
whole of South Yunnan. The trade of the place has been monopolized by some
enterprising merchants from Canton, and at the time of the French Expedition a
Cantonese chief had even set up as an independent prince at Laoka'i, on the frontier
of China and Tonking. The custom-house he had established on the river was said