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also distributed like coal gas in long pipes. "In wandering over the provinces of Szchuan, Kwei-chou, and Hupeh," says Mr. E. H. Parker, "I had good opportunities for studying the working of this wonderful industry. In many places the salt, especially when of the hard kind like blocks of stone, is practically small money, and its retail value varies unerringly so many fractions of a farthing per pound according to the freight rates of boats in demand and the number of miles coolies have to walk. A lost traveller could almost grope his way about the country by simply asking the retail price at each village and the next one in any direction. The waste of fuel, of human and beast labour, of time and of patience is of course gigantic, but it might have serious effects upon the popular economy of the province were machinery suddenly introduced, carriage cheapened, and strict honesty incontinently in- sisted on." No limitations are imposed on the quantity of salt produced in any of the circuits, nor is the mode of production prescribed. The one inflexible rule is that every grain produced must be sold either to government officials who have depots for storage purposes, or to salt-merchants who have purchased warrants conferring the right to supply certain areas of consumption. The cost of production varies greatly. In some places, where simple processes of evaporation are available, the expenditure does not exceed four-

pence per cwt.; in others, where boiling has to