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CHAPTER IV

PROVINCE OF CHÉHKIANG

_Chusan Archipelago--Putu and Pirates--Queer Fishers and Queer
Boats--Ningpo--A Literary Triumph--Search for a Soul--Chinese
Psychology--Hangchow--The Great Bore_

Chéhkiang, the next province to the north, and the smallest of
the eighteen, is a portion of the highlands mentioned in the last
chapter. It is about as large as Indiana, while some of the provinces
have four or five times that area. There is no apparent reason
why it should have a distinct provincial government save that its
waters flow to the north, or perhaps because the principality of
Yuih (1100 B.C.) had such a boundary, or, again, perhaps because
the language of the people is akin to that of the Great Plain in
which its chief river finds an outlet. How often does a conqueror
sever regions which form a natural unit, merely to provide a
principality for some favourite!

Lying off its coast is the Chusan archipelago, in which two islands
are worthy of notice. The largest, which gives the archipelago
its name, is about half the length of Long Island, N. Y., and is
so called from a fancied resemblance to a junk, it having a high
promontory at either end. It contains eighteen valleys--a division
not connected with the eighteen provinces, but
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