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166 dreaded. A change is now coming over them : better methods of recruiting, of drill, and higher pay are producing their effect, and the old attitude of turbulent boastfulness is giving place to pride in efficiency. Given good officers, no better fighting material exists in China. As in the military, so in civil life, Hunanese are found in high office through- out the Empire ; so much so that at one time of seven Viceroys six were Hunanese. The rise of to its present commanding position in China and in the eyes of the Western world dates from this, the Taiping period.

The province as it now is would seem to have been demarcated early in the thirteenth century. The term Hukuang, applying to the whole of the region around the formerly great Tungting Lake, dates from the Ming dynasty, and the term Liang Hu, designating the divided provinces of Hunan and Hupeh (north of the lake and south of the lake provinces), dates from the times of Kanghsi of the present dynasty. Both terms are used of the Viceroyalty with its seat at Wuch§,ng in Hupeh. The immediate chief of Hunan is a Governor resident at Changsha, and with him are the usual official hierarchy. The Grain Taotai-ship was abolished in 1905 and its duties vested in the Salt Toatai, who is the Superintendent of Customs at the new treaty port of Changsha.

Geography.—Hunan is a beautiful province: it abounds in the picturesque. The natives graphically describe it as containing three parts upland and seven parts water. A more accurate division sometimes heard is three-tenths hill, six-tenths water, and one-tenth plain. Its area has been estimated at from 74,000 to 90,000 square miles, and its population has been variously given as from 9 to 23 millions ; 1 8 millions at the present day will be found a generous figure.

Situated on the northern slope of the Nanling range, which forms the watershed between the Yangtse and the West river systems, the south and west of the province are very mountainous. Its centre contains much open, undu-