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in the case of two colls, of only 15 in 1000, and at the two mentioned colls of 25 in 1000, to be constructed at an estimated cost of £10,000 a kilometre. M. Doumer, late Governor-General of Indo-China, the vastness of whose ambitions was only equalled by the magnificent flights of his imagination, declared, as the result of a hurried survey by the officers of his Public Works Department in 1899, that "there were serious reasons for thinking that in seeking to attain first of all Sui Fu, in preference to Ch'ung-k'ing, his engineers had chosen the most convenient route, and, perhaps, the only one that was practicable." The members of the Yün-nan Company's Commission selected the route from Yün-nan Fu viâ Chu-tsing, Süan Wei, and Wei-ning Chou, whence viâ Chao-t'ung Fu to Sui Fu, or viâ Pitsie and Yung-ning to Na-ch'i, though neither alternative, it was admitted, could be described as anything but difficult. While the rival engineers of Europe were thus pondering sorrowfully upon the difficulties of a Yün-nan-Ssŭch'uan railway, an element of humour was introduced by the Chinese, who calmly declared