Page:Further India; (IA furtherindia00clif).pdf/429

The Red River of Tongking, commonly called the Song-Koi, but named Song-tao by the Tongkingese, was, as we have seen, first descended from Yun-nan by the Frenchman Dupuis, who afterwards ascended it with a cargo of warlike stores from Hanoi. Its navigability for anything bigger than native poling-boats was long disputed, but in August, 1890, the steam-launch "Yun- nan," drawing 70 centimetres, was taken up as far as Laokai, thus proving the practicability of using vessels of shallow draught upon the river. As a trade-route, however, the Song-Koi is admittedly unsatisfactory, and the French Government has decided that railways, not rivers, are to be regarded as the only possible means of opening up communication with the southern provinces. of China. The actual sources of the Red River have not been located with accuracy, though the main branch is believed to take its rise in the mountains to the east of King-tung, in Yun-nan, in approximately 24° N. lat. and 103° E. long. The eastern branch rises partly in the mountains between Tongking and Kwang-si, and partly in the latter province, while the western branch, the Song-Bo, or Black River, has its source in the hills to the westward of Tsu-hiung, in Yun-nan. Beyond the Tongkingese boundary none of these branches has been explored or surveyed in detail for any great portion of its course.

The Song-Ma, the next important river to the south, has been traced to its source in the mountains of Uei- bak, which divide its basin from that of the Nam U, a left-bank tributary of the Mekong which falls into that river above Luang Prabang; this was part of the work