Report by Consul-General Hosie on the province of Ssu-̆chúan.

  • Hosie, Alexander, Sir, 1853-1925.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report by Consul-General Hosie on the province of Ssu-̆chúan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    stone is brought to Cldengtu and manufactured into ornaments, such as rings, bracelets, and the like. The cutting of the stone is done by means of a circular metal disc fixed on the bar ol the lathe which I have already described as employed in the manufacture of horn and bone ware. Drilling the stone is done by the same machine, sand and water being used in the process. XVII. Mineral Oil. Petroleum is known to exist in the province. In the district of P£eng-ch‘i Hsicn, in the Prefecture of T£ung-chTian Fu, a native company has a monopoly for working the oil, but the results have proved unsatisfactory, as, owing to inability to refine it, the oil will not burn freely. Traces of oil have been found in other districts, and the famous “ fire ” wells of Tzu-liu-ching, the gas from which is employed in salt evaporation, no doubt owe their usefulness to petroleum deposits. The oil itself has not been reached, at least in any quantity, and it is probable that a rock crust through which the gas has succeeded in forcing its way still separates the province from untold wealth. XVIII. Salt. I have left to the last one of the greatest and most valuable industries in Ssuch uan—* the manufacture of salt—with which the province supplies not only its own vast popula¬ tion, but also great parts of Hupei, the whole of Kueichou with the exception of the one Prefecture of Li-phng Fu, which draws its requirements from the Two Kwang, and Northern Yiinnan, including the Prefectures of Ohao-Fung and Teung-chcuan and the Department of Chen-hsiung. I do not propose to discuss in this place the interesting but somewhat complicated system of salt administration of the province : my aim is simply to describe the method of production and arrive at an approximate estimate of the quantity and value of the annual output. The great brine deposits of SsuchTian are contained in the south-central part of the province, between the T‘o and Min Rivers, which enter the Yangtsze at Lu Chou and Hsii-chou Fu respectively. Near the Min, at the Wu-Tung Chdao Wells, the brine is found at a depth of about 500 feet, while near the Tffi, at Tzu-liu-ching, where the most numerous and most productive wells are worked, the depth runs from 1,000 to 3,000 feet. These two great salt areas lie near the centre of the Red Basin, and the brine is found underlying the sandstone crust which covers it; but brine is found and worked at lesser depths throughout the east of the province, and, even to the east of the Red Basin, such as at the eastern end of the city of K‘uei-chou Fu, where, during low water season, pits are dug on both banks of the Yangtsze, brine is struck at a depth of about 30 feet and evaporated on the spot. In the south-west of the province, in the Chien-ch‘ang Valley, brine is found and worked at Pai-yen-ching—“ White Salt Wells ”—within the district of Yen-yiian Hsien, where it lies at a depth of about 50 feet. To give an idea of the process of salt manufacture in Ssuch'uan, I may quote from my diary what I wrote when visiting the K‘uei-chou Fu, Tzu-liu-ching, and Pai-yen-ching salt works. The Kcuei-chou Fu pits I visited on the 20th December, 1902, and I then wrote as follows:— “ Taking advantage of the six hours’ delay, I started at 10 a.m. to visit the salt factory, and proceeding eastward below the city (K‘uei-chou Fu) wall, I met a large number of men carrying baskets of more or less dust coal citywards. I priced this coal at several points on the road and learned that it cost 150 cash per 100 catties, or, at the exchange here of 720 cash per 1 dollar, 3 dol. 60 c. per ton. The number ot carriers led me to think that I was approaching a coal mine, but on reaching a stream (called the Hsiao Ho, or ‘ Small River,’ and described as such on official hags) i discovered a large number of boats discharging coal, which is mined 15 li, or 5 miles, higher up the stream. Crossing the stream by a rude wooden bridge, I accompanied a string of coal carriers to the tail of the shingle bank, whence clouds of steam were rising. In the middle of this evidently temporary village I found a wide pit, about 30 feet deep, at the bottom of which brine was bubbling up at two places a yard or two apart, and men busy as ants dipping their buckets in the brine, carrying them up the sides of the pit, and emptying their contents into wooden tubs., whence the brine was led by outlets, covered with bamboo sieves, into shallow wooden troughs connecting with [1231] O