The eastern portions of Hupeh are rougher than the southern, and were overrun during the rebellion by armed bands, so that their best towns were destroyed. Siangyang fu and Fanching, near the northern borders, are important places in the internal commerce of this region. Its many associations with leading events in Chinese early and feudal history render it an interesting region to native scholars. A large part of the southwestern prefecture of Shingan is hilly, and its mountainous portions are inhabited by a rude, illiterate population, many of whom are partly governed by local rulers. [Illustration: JUKAN GORGE, YANGTSZ’ RIVER.] ~NATURAL AND POLITICAL FEATURES OF HUNAN.~ The province of HUNAN is bounded north by Hupeh, east by Kiangsí, south by Kwangtung and Kwangsí, west by Kweichau and Sz’chuen. Its area is reckoned at 84,000 square miles--equal to Great Britain or the State of Kansas. It is drained by four rivers, whose basins comprise nearly the whole province, and define its limits by their terminal watersheds. The largest is the Siang, which, rising in the hills on the south and east in numerous navigable streams, affords facilities for trade in small boats to the borders of Kiangsí and Kwangtung, the traffic concentring at Siangtan; this fertile and populous basin occupies well-nigh half of the province. Through the western part of Hunan runs the Yuen kiang, but the rapids and cascades occur so frequently as to render it far less useful than the Siang. Boats are towed up to the towns in the south-west with great labor, carrying only four or five tons cargo; these are exchanged for mere scows at Hangkia, 200 miles above Changteh, in order to reach Yuenchau. The contrast between the two rivers as serviceable channels of intercourse is notable. Between these two main rivers runs the Tsz’ kiang, navigable for only small batteaux, which must be pulled up so many rapids that the river itself has been called Tan ho, or ‘Rapid River;’ its basin is narrow and fertile, and the produce is carried to market over the hills both east and west. The fourth river, the Lí shui, empties, like all the others, into the Tungting Lake, and drains the northwestern portion of the province; it is navigable only in its lower course, and is almost useless for travel. These rivers all keep their own channels through the lake, which is rather a cesspool for the overflow of the Yangtsz’ during its annual rise than a lake fed by its own springs and affluents. At Siangyin, on the River Siang, the banks are 35 feet above low water, and gradually slope down to its mouth at Yohchau, or near it. The variation of this lake from a large sheet of water at one season to a marsh at another, must of course affect the whole internal trade of the province, inasmuch as the rivers running through it are in a continual condition of flood or low water--either extreme cannot but seriously interfere with steam vessels.