authority, Captain Ryder: "When we come, however, to consider the question of a line from the Kung-long Ferry up the Nam Ting valley, we once more enter the regions of possibility.... And this line, which Captain Watt Jones
probably means Yün-nan Hsien. But this place is not in the valley of the Black river, but in that of the Red river, so that yet another high range of hills has to be crossed to reach it." From this point Major Davies admits that a practicable line for a railway could be found to the Yang-tsze at Chin-chiang-kai; but this he points out is 500 miles from Sui Fu, at which point navigation practically ceases. "These 500 miles of extremely difficult construction through an absolutely unprofitable country would render such a line quite impracticable." The line from Kung-long to Yün-nan Hsien, followed by Captain Watt Jones under Major Davies's directions, is described briefly by Major Davies as follows: "It would follow up the Nam Ting from Kung-long, continuing northwards over a range 5600 feet to Yun Chou. From here down the Nan Chiao Ho to the Mekong, up this river for thirty miles, and then by an easy ascent up a small side stream past Kung Lang, and over another watershed 7200 feet to the Red river valley. Both the Black river and the Wei-yuan Chiang are avoided altogether by going round their sources." When the Government of India were called upon to consider the Kung-long Ferry route, they formed the opinion that the best-known route from the Kung-long Ferry onwards was not only an extremely difficult one, but one which passed through a sparsely populated and unproductive part of the country, and they decided that little was to be gained by sinking vast sums of money in so unprofitable and unnecessary an enterprise.
