Page:China historical and descriptive.djvu/39

Rh The Yang-tsze-kiang, or Blue River, also rises in the mountains of Thibet, but pursues a southerly and eastern course in place of the northerly and easterly direction taken by its rival or sister stream, the Hoang-ho. Beyond the Great Plain the Yang-tsze enters a broken country, then the low-lying region of Central China, beyond which steamers have penetrated to the gorges of Ichang, in longitude 111° E., thirteen hundred miles from the sea. Here a barrier, in the shape of a long and swift rapid, is presented to steam navigation, but not an insuperable one, for scientific men say that by means of stationary engines the difficulty can be surmounted.

The total length of the Yang-tsze-kiang from its source to its mouth is estimated at 3314 miles, and the Hoang-ho at 2624. Of these noble rivers, M. Malthe-Brun, the eminent French geographer, says — "These two great streams, similar both in rise and destination, descend with rapidity from the great table-lands of Central Asia, and each of them meets a branch of mountains which forces it to describe an immense circuit, the Hoang to the north, and the Yangtse to the south. Separated by an interval of 11,000 miles, the one seems inclined to direct itself to the tropical seas, while the other wanders off among the icy deserts of Mongolia. Suddenly recalled, as if by a recollection of their early brotherhood, they approach one another like the Euphrates and Tigris in ancient Mesopotamia; where, being almost conjoined by lakes and canals, they terminate within a mutual distance of 110 miles their majestic and immense courses." The reader must