Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-09-02
ished Europe the feet OF clay now cb-
secured by the sparkle and coruscations
OF brilliant diplomacy.
RIfssTA'S DIFFICULTIES.

I
With Britain or Japan would be partially
fought out, there dweils "a population Of
quarter OF a million OF Russian sub
jccts. Provisions for these people, and
for the convict island OF Saghalien, are
sent all the way from Odessa through the
Suez canal. The expense OF equip
ping an army with It's commissariat and
transports and sending II by sea TO the
far East is a task 20 which the Wanted
Russian Power would be unequal. Even
IL transportation were forthcoming. and
the troops or their stores ever got
through the Suez canal and the Red Sea.
nothing could save them. for the British
fleet Is stronger In fact than IL Is on
paper. All the military stores. commits
sariat, and army from the far East are
drawn from Moscow. Kieff. Petersburg.
odessa, and Nikolaieff. Until the Trans
Siberian railway is finished every ounce
| OF these reinforcements must travel by
sea. IL the SueZ canal were blocked the
Russian armies for the far East must
pass around the Cape Of Good Hope. or
march 1850 miles In East Siberia. The
| Russian Government has no financial
credit for such an enterprise as this.
| Nothing but the Ignorance Of the popu-
latlon, which the government does its
utmost 10 maintain, prevents the forma-
| ton and expression OF public opinion
on the subject. the influence Of which
Russian ministers are themselves the
I last to deny"
THE SCENE OF DISPUTE.
Leaving the question of Russia versus
Britain at this stage, It is interesting to
turn 10 the scene Of the dispute. When
Dewey's great victory drew universal at
tenion to Manila. il made every ore
ostro., -
geographical position IL would have been
hard prior TO this, for nine out Of ten
people to guess. The Yangtse Valley
crisis has caused an interest TO spring
up regarding this part of China that was
never felt before. Here is the excellent
description OF an agent sent out especially
to study the country and make report:
THE Yangtse makes the valley. IL has
done so physically in the past. and is do
Ing so to-day. Were 1t possible to unfold
In one view the whole course of this
stream. from the mountains and high
lands Of Thibet TO the sea, with hun
dreds of tributaries from north and SOUTH
we would have a striking panorama II
might recall Tennyson's description Of the
work of rivers to Bring down Eonian
hills and sow the dust of continents TO
be- For countless ages the rich current
has been depositing on the TANKS of an
cient mountains-many of them now worn
10 mere stumpS-the level alluVial plains
on which the millions Of modern China !
live, and still from generation to genera |
ton laying by its overflow fresh layers of |
virgin soil to keep up an unsurpassed fer |
UNITY. Vhe Chinese denote rivers by the |
syllables no and kiang. Pei-Ho and
Whang-Ho are northern and yellow river |
respectively Yangtse-Kiang is the great |
Aahgtse river and provinces and towns
on It's banks take their name from it. like
Kangsu, Kiangsi. Chinkiang. and Kin
kiang, Yangtse, pronounced very much as
II written Yangta, the finaIevowel being
nearly elided, is often said to mean Son |
OF the ocean, which would be quite I'm |
keeping with poetic Celestial nofnencla-
ture; but another rendering associates II
with the old Yang country, and the more
prosaic derivation seems TO be the correct
one.
THE RIVER OF CHINA.
IL deserves the pre-eminence Of being
aIled the river of China. 1t will compare
With the Amazon for length. with the Mis-
3issippi Tor volume, with the St Lawrence
or navigability, and with any rirer in the
World, not excepting the Nile for its
muddy sediment Ii has been computed
nat the 4antse contributes to the ocean
100000 cubic feet Of water on an aver
|
art in thirty is earthly matter there
'ould be 100000 cubic feet of sediment
very hour spread over the floor Of the ,
nina Sea. Any one who has steamed
or a whole day through the shallow
'aters OF that sea, thickened by the out
ow Of the Yangtse, will not deem this
n excessivec estimate. Over an era. as
irge as Ireland, the dust of the Central
sian highlands is being spread, the sea
hallowed,, and the coast line pushed
year by year. 1t is mans fault
, through lack OF embankment, floods
oread devastation around, from time to
me; by proper engineering work the
-ream might be restrained within its
nannel, and still be made, by controlled
Ilgatlon, 10 fertilize an area many times |
5 large as that watered by the Nile I
or the purposes of commerce the {
angtse is, L think. unrivalled. p
ITS NAVIGABILITY.
1t amazes one to see a 5000 or 5000 ton II
ner at Montreal, 200 miles from the
outh of the st. Lawrence but the largest Y
up In the British navy may so to Han 1;
NV, 600 miles above Voosung. and a b
ssel drawing twelve or fourteen feet may @
oceed to Ichang, LOCO miles from the :,
outh of the river. We passed a Russian
a snip OF twenty-six feet draught steam y
= |
II possible in winter. when the river is n
its lowest, but even then vessels like \,
e Kut Wo, one of Jardine Matheson's V
rye feet, carrying 1900 tons of cargo and II
veral hundred Chinese passengers h
n always come and go TO Hankow a
Id lighter craft to Ichang. There is no ~
yer in the Old World, nor, / think. i'm .,
o New, where these things would be .
ssible. The consequence is, that even m
Ider the imbecile government of Pekin. 81
lich does everything TO restrain com e
cree that reason denounces and mnacv We
guests, the Yangtse is still great com dc
srcial highway. Between Shanghai and to
ankow are eighteen large steamers in
lima merchants, four; Jardine. Mathe- III
n, three; Butterfeld and Swre, three. 1t
,Bain two; Greaves d Co., fouI1 and tn
panese company, two. On the upper er
aches are four more. This fleet IS ha
icered by British, Americans. and
istralians, and is continually increasing.
But these represent a small portion of ro'
0 traffic. The surface OF the great me-
er bears hundreds-f might, perhaps w w
y thousands-Of Chinese 1unks and 20
IT'S, whose owners, despite eternal "a
1eeze, the iniquitous likin. and the nos VI
vely monstrous export duties. manage i n'
live" II