ing, the capital, in the north, to the south
of the empire, a distance of six hundred miles; and it was in use all
the way in former times. The Chinese were not distinguished as
navigators; but in modern times steamers ply between Canton and the
ports of the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, so that the canal is less necessary, and
much of it is in bad condition.

"The Great Wall is better known to all the world than the Grand Canal as
a peculiarly Chinese wonder, and every school boy and girl has heard of
it. It was built as a defence against the raids of the northern tribes,
though for this purpose it was a failure; but it still stands, though
some of the English newspapers only a few years ago treated it as a
myth; yet there is no doubt whatever of its existence, for it has been
visited by many reliable English and American travellers. It was begun
two hundred and fourteen years before the Christian era.

"Our artist has indicated the wall on the map;" and Mr. Gaskette pointed
it out on the west shore of the Gulf of Liau-tung, properly a part of
the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, and traced it some distance to the west. "Its
length, following its numerous twists and bends, through valleys and
over mountains, is fifteen hundred miles. It is twenty-five feet wide at
the base, and fifteen at the top. It is formed by two walls of brick,
different from those we use, weighing from forty to sixty pounds; and
the space between them is filled with earth and stones. It varies in
height from fifteen to thirty feet.

"The top of the wall is paved with brick, but is now overgrown with
grass. Along the wall, and not on it, are towers of brick at intervals.
You observe that at Peking the wall makes a sweep to the north, perhaps
thirty miles or more, enclosing a square of land of this extent outside
of the general course of the structure. I met an American gentleman who
had been to the capital of China, and he told me he had been to the
Great Wall. Dr. Legge may take the conceit out of some travellers when
he says: 'What foreigners go to visit from Peking is merely a loop-wall
of later formation, enclosing portions of Chih-li and Shan-hsi.'

"Leaving the Grand Canal and the Great Wall, we will pass on to the
lakes of China. They are not on a large scale, like the rivers; and they
are insignificant compared with those of our own country. The Tung-ting
Hu appears to be the largest, mostly in the province of Hunan, which is
sixty-five or seventy miles long. T