Print  Specifics: Type of print: Intaglio, steel engraving - Original antique print Year of printing: not indicated in the print - actual 1841 Artist: Thomas Allom Publisher: Fisher, Son & Co., London, Paris Condition: 1 (1. Excellent - 2. Very good - 3. Good - 4. Fair). Dimensions: 8 x 10.5 inches (20 x 27 cm), including blank margins (borders) around the image. Paper weight: 2 (1. Thick - 2. Heavier - 3. Medium heavy - 4. Slightly heavier - 5. Thin) Reverse side: Blank An excerpt from the original narrative: The Ou-ma-too or the 'Five Horses' Heads: From the highest summit of the Ou-ma-too, an extensive, varied, and agreeable prospect is beheld. Much fertile lowland is seen adjoining the banks of the rivers, which appear like attenuated silvery lines, winding down the long-extended mountainglens for many a mile, and falling into the Pe-kiang at Chaou -choo-foo. One mountain, San-van-hap, or the Flying Hill, more conspicuous than the rest, is believed to be the highest in China, and is said to derive its singular name from the ruined temple on its summit, which was transported by the wand of some wizard, and in a single night, from a province in the north to its present aerial position. Less picturesque than the southern range, the aspect presented in the illustration possesses characters that confer upon it an increased interest. Sterile, uninhabited, and rugged, the surface displays a remarkable variety of colour ; the disintegrated sandstone, of which the mountains are composed, strongly contrasting with the jet-black hue of the coal that here rises to the view, and is scattered over the soil in the immediate vicinity of the hills . This invaluable mineral abounds in China ; in the province of Pe-tche-le is found a species of graphite : that exposed for sale in the towns along the banks of the Yang-tse-kiang resembles cannel-coal ; and, in the vicinity of the Po-yang lake, a description having the character of bovey coal prevails . At the base of the Five Horses' Heads a sulphurous kind is raised, and an extensive trade is conducted here by means of it. The collieries are worked by adits driven into the sides of the mountains, not by perpendicular shafts, and the coal is conveyed in wagons to the entrance, and thrown from a stage or jetty directly into the hold of the junk.  Irrigation is one of the most favourite practices in Chinese agriculture ; and the variety of ingenious modes for raising and distributing water, reflects much credit on the industrial character of the people . On the left bank of the Pe-kiang river, and amidst the sandy grounds that are elevated above the water-level, the sugar-cane is much cultivated, and a large water-wheel, erected close to the shore, is employed for the purpose of extensive and continual irrigation. In the construction of this primitive contrivance, ingenuity and frugality are most admirably combined . Two upright posts are securely fixed in the bed of the river, and in a plane perpendicular to the trend of the bank. These uprights support the axis, about ten feet in length, of a wheel consisting of two unequal rims, the diameter of that near the shore being eighteen inches less than that farther off: but both dip into the water, while the opposite segment of the wheel rises above the level of the bank. This double wheel is connected with the axis by eighteen spokes, obliquely inserted near each extremity of the axis, and crossing each other at two-thirds of their length. They acquire additional security by a concentric circle and bands that connect them with the rims ; the spokes inserted in the interior extremity of the axis reaching the outer rim, and those proceeding from the exterior terminus reaching the inner and smaller rim. Between the rims and the crossings of the spokes, is woven a kind of close basket-work, serving as ladle -boards or floats, which meeting successively the current of the stream, by their impulse turn the wheel. To both rims are attached small tubes or spouts of wood, with an inclination of about twenty-five degrees to the horizon, or to the axis of the wheel. These tubes are closed at the outer extremity, but open at the other. By this position, the tubes which happen during a revolution to be in the stream with the open ends uppermost, fill with water. As that segment of the wheel rises, the mouths of these tubes are then relatively depressed, and pour their contents into a wide trough, whence they are conducted amongst the canes as may be required. Martin2001 Satisfaction Guaranteed Policy! Any print purchased from me may be returned for any (or no) reason for a full refund including all postage. Internet seller since 1998. Five-star service.