Page:Farmers of forty centuries.djvu/118

100 made a similar record of the number of canals seen from the train, close along the track, and the notes show, in a distance of 162 miles, 593 canals between Lungtan and Nansiang. This is an average of more than three canals per mile for this region and that between Shanghai and Hangchow.

 Fig. 52.—Sketch map of portions of Chekiang and Kiangsu Provinces, representing some 2,700 miles of main canals and over 300 miles of sea-wall. The sea-walls are represented by the very heavy black lines. The small rectangle shows the area covered by Fig. 51.

The extent, nature and purpose of these vast systems of internal improvement may be better realized through a study of the next two sketch maps. The first, Fig. 52, represents an area 175 by 160 miles, of which the last illustration is the portion enclosed in the small rectangle. On this area there are shown 2,700 miles of canals and only about one-third of the canals shown in Fig. 51 are laid down on this map, and according to our personal observations there are three times as many canals as are shown on the map of which Fig. 51 represents a part. It is probable,