One of the largest and most useful of its tributaries in its lower course is the Kan kiang in Kiangsí, which empties through the Poyang lake, and continues the transverse communication from north to south, connecting with the Grand Canal. The Tungting lake receives the Siang and Yuen, which drain the northern sides of the Nan ling in Hunan; and west of them is the Kungtan or Wu, which comes in with its surplus waters from Kweichau. These are on the south; the Han in Hupeh, and the Kialing, Min, and Loh in Sz’chuen, are the main affluents on the north, contributing the drainage south of the Peh ling. The Grand Canal comes in opposite Chinkiang, and from thence the deep channel, able to carry the largest men-of-war on its bosom, finds its way to the Pacific. No two rivers can be more unlike in their general features than these two mighty streams. While the Yellow River is unsteady, the Yangtsz’ is uniform and deep in its lower course, and available for rafts from Batang in the western confines of Sz’chuen, and for boats from beyond Tungchuen in Yunnan, more than 1,700 miles from its mouth. Its great body and depth afford ample room for ocean steam-ships 200 miles, as far as Nanking, where in some places no bottom could be found at twenty fathoms, while the banks are not so low as to be often injured by the freshets, even when the flood is over thirty feet. At Pingshan above Süchau in Sz’chuen, 1,550 miles from its mouth, Blakiston reckons the river to be 1,500 feet above tide-water, which gives an average fall of 12 inches to a geographical mile; the inclination is increased to 19 inches in some portions, and it is this force which carries the silt of this stream out to sea, but which is wanting in the Yellow River. The fall of the Yangtsz’ is nearly double that of the Nile and Amazon, and half that of the Mississippi. The amount of water discharged is estimated at 500,000 cubic feet a second at Íchang, about 700 miles up, and it may reasonably be concluded that at Tsungming it discharges in times of flood a million cubic feet per second. Barrow calculated the discharge of the Yellow River in 1798 to be 11,616 cubic feet per second, when the current ran seven miles an hour. No river in the world exceeds the Yangtsz’ for arrangement of subsidiary streams, which render the whole basin accessible as far as the Yalung. When a ship-canal has been dug around the gorges and rapids between Íchang and Kwei, steam-vessels can ascend nearly two thousand miles. The area of its basin is estimated at 548,000 square miles; and from its central course, and the number of provinces through which it passes, it has been termed the Girdle of China; while for its size, perennial and ample supply of water, and accessibility for navigation, it ranks with the great rivers of the world.[12]