Hwuichau (or in Cantonese, Fychow) is celebrated, among other things, for its excellent ink and lackered-ware. Fungyang (_i.e._, the Rising Phœnix), a town lying north-west of Nanking, on the River Hwai, was intended, by Hungwu, the founder of the Ming dynasty, to have been the capital of the Empire instead of Nanking, and was thus named in anticipation of its future splendor. ~KIANGSÍ PROVINCE.~ The province of KIANGSÍ (_i.e._, West of the River) lies south of Nganhwui and Hupeh, between Chehkiang and Fuhkien on the east, and Hunan on the west, reaching from the Yangtsz’ to the Mei ling on the south. Its form is oblong, and its entire area is made up of the beautiful basin of the Kan kiang, including all the affluents and their minor valleys. The hilly portions form part of the remarkable series of mountainous ridges, which cover all south-eastern and southern China, an area of about 300,000 square miles, extending from Ningpo south-westerly to Annam. It is made up of ranges of short and moderate hills, cut up by a complicated net of water-courses, many of which present a succession of narrow defiles and gentle valleys with bottom lands from five to twelve miles wide. That part of this region in Kiangsí has an irregular watershed on the east, separating it from the Min basin, and a more definite divide on the west from Hunan and its higher mountains. The province entire is a little larger than all New England, or twice the size of Portugal, but, in population, vastly exceeds those countries. The surface of the land is rugged, and the character of the inhabitants partakes in some respects of the roughness of their native hills. It is well watered and drained by the River Kan and its tributaries, most of which rise within the province; the main trunk empties into Poyang Lake by numerous mouths, whose silt has gradually made the country around it swampy. For many miles on its eastern and southern banks extends an almost uninhabitable marsh, presenting a dreary appearance. The soil, generally, is productive, and large quantities of rice, wheat, silk, cotton, indigo, tea, and sugar, are grown and exported. It shares, in some degree, the manufactures of the neighboring provinces, especially in Nankeen cloth, vast quantities of which are woven here, but excels them all in the quality and amount of its porcelain. The mountains produce camphor, varnish, oak, banian, fir, pine, and other trees; those on the west are well wooded, but much of the timber has been carried away during the late rebellion, and left the hillsides bare and profitless. ~TOWNS AND PRODUCTIONS OF KIANGSÍ.~