It needs the population that dwelt in the province before the rebellion involved the death of millions.

It can absorb an immense proportion of the surplus population of China.

During, and subsequent to, the Taiping rebellion the province of Szechuen increased by 45,000,000 in forty years (1842-82); given the necessity, there seems no reason why the population of Yunnan should not increase in an almost equal proportion.
On the 22nd we passed Lu-feng-hsien, another ruined town.

The finest stone bridge I have seen in Western China, and one that would arrest attention in any country in the world, is at this town.

It crosses the wide bed of a stream that in winter is insignificant, but which grows in volume in the rains of summer to a broad and powerful river.