Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/183

Rh of 10 cash a catty. I was further given to understand that a well takes anything from one to fourteen years to bore. When a man has a little capital he starts boring, and when the capital is exhausted he perforce stops until he has accumulated sufficient to go on again—a matter sometimes of years.

I had not the time to test the accuracy of the information given above, and prefer therefore to accept the figures of Sir Alexander Hosie, than whom no one is better qualified to speak on all matters connected with the province of Ssŭch'uan. The following figures are taken from his chapter on the salt industry in 'Three Years in Western China,' and his report on the province of Ssŭch'uan (China No. 5, 1904). Speaking of the brine-fields of Ssŭch'uan as a whole, he says: "At depths varying from 30 feet to over 2000 feet brine is found, raised, and evaporated.... So great is the supply, and so vast the industry, ... that Ssŭch'uan, in addition to satisfying home requirements, is able to send an immense surplus to Kuei-chow, parts of Yün-nan, as well as to the