large quantities of silk, tea, cotton, grain, and tobacco. The most interesting feature of this Plain is the enormous population it supports, which is, according to the census of 1812, not less than 177 millions of human beings, if the whole number of inhabitants contained in the six provinces lying wholly or partly in it be included; making it by far the most densely settled of any part of the world of the same size, and amounting to nearly two-thirds of the whole population of Europe.[16] ~THE GREAT WALL.~ The public works of China are probably unequalled in any land or by any people, for the amount of human labor bestowed upon them; the natural aspect of the country has been materially changed by them, and it has been remarked that the Great Wall is the only artificial structure which would arrest attention in a hasty survey of the surface of the globe. But their usefulness, or the science exhibited in their construction, is far inferior to their extent. The Great Wall, called _Wan-lí Chang Ching_ (_i.e._, Myriad-mile Wall), was built by Tsin Chí-hwangtí, in order to protect his dominions from the incursions of the northern tribes. Some portions of it were already in existence, and he formed the plan of joining and extending them along the whole northern frontier to guard it. It was finished B.C. 204, having been ten years in building, seven of which were done after the Emperor’s death. This gigantic work was probably a popular one in the main, and still remains as its own chief evidence of the energy, industry, and perseverance of its builders, as well as their unwisdom and waste. Its construction probably cost less than the usual sums spent by European States for their standing armies. It commences at Shanhai wei or Shanhai kwan (lat. 40°, long. 119° 50′), a coast town of some importance as on the boundary between Chihlí and Shingking, and a place of considerable trade. Lord Jocelyn describes the wall, when observed from the ships, as “scaling the precipices and topping the craggy hills of the country, which have along this coast a most desolate appearance.”