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CHAPTER IV.
THE PROBLEM OF THE YANG-TSZE.
I propose dealing with the whole question of commerce and communications in later chapters; but it may not be amiss if, while the description of my journey up 1400 miles of the Yang-tsze is still fresh in the reader's mind, I touch upon the problem of its navigation. The importance of this question cannot be overrated, since the Yang-tsze provides at present almost the only means of communication between the outside world and a portion of the Chinese empire which has been described as bearing "about the same proportion to the prospective value of the yet undeveloped Sudan as does the wealth of the city of London to that of any ordinary
