The canal is largely used for passenger traffic, but the rate of progress seldom exceeds 25 to 30 miles a day, and is often under 20. The greater part of the work has been expended in the simple labour of constructing embankments, and not, as in the case of the Panama and Suez Canals, in digging a deep channel. The rudiments, if not the complete essentials, of this waterway were already available when the Mongols joined the rivers and lakes to each other by means of the canal; but it is creditable to the successive dynasties that have ruled over China, and especially to the Ming and Tsing emperors, that they have always kept the waterway open and in tolerable repair. Mr. William Chapman, in his ‘Obervations on the various systems of Canal Navigation,’ states that the “grand canal of China is in fact only a river or stream navigation, although greatly diverted by art from its ancient course in some parts; the current of the water being slow, and prevented from running off too rapidly by its descent being occasionally checked by flood gates, consisting of two abutments of stone, one projecting from each bank, and leaving a space in the middle just wide enough to admit a passage for the largest vessels employed upon the canal. To prevent unnecessary waste of water through the flood gates, the passages are occasionally closed by planks let down transversely and separately, one above the other, their ends resting in a vertical groove in each abutment.” The same author has observed that it was probably between the years of the Christian era 605 and 618 that these were introduced. Again, he says:—“The Chinese method of overcoming ascents appears to be long subsequent to the attempts of the Egyptians, under the successors of Alexander, who, according to Mons. Huet, Bishop of Avranches, had the art of constructing sluices, or locks of one set of gates, so as to stop the impetuosity of the current, and be occasionally opened. Though termed gates, the openings were most probably closed with beams of timber, let down in grooves, as gates of large width and depth could not be opened without difficulty.” There are many subsidiary canals in China. In a country that has no railways and very few roads, water transport is of much more importance than in any European State. Canals have been cut from the Grand Canal in every direction, and are largely used. FOOTNOTES: [126] Marco Polo spent seventeen years at the court of Kublai, the great Khan of the Tartars. The first edition of his travels appeared in 1496, and the work has been translated into several languages. He gave a better description of China than had previously been written, and although much of what he wrote was at the time doubted, his narratives have been largely verified by subsequent travellers. Colonel Yule has published an admirable edition of Polo’s travels for English readers. [127] ‘The Middle Kingdom,’ vol. i. p. 31.