THE  PROVINCES  AND  THE  TREATY  PORTS  263
of  20  tons  capacity.  The  South  River  is  often  also  called
the  West  River  (constituting,  as  it  does,  the  main  trade
route)  up  to  a  point  30  miles  above  Nanning,  where  it  is
bifurcated  into  the  Left  Branch  leading  to  Lungchow,  and
the  Right  Branch  leading  to  Poseh,  whence  is  a  main  trade
route  into  Yunnan,  by  which  the  trade  with  Hongkong
and  Canton  via  Wuchow  and  via  Pakhoi  finds  its  way  ;
Poseh  is  accessible  to  large  native  craft,  of  perhaps  30  tons
capacity,  navigated  through  the  many  rapids  with  great
skill.  The  fall  of  the  river  from  Poseh  to  Wuchow,  about
500  miles,  is  800  feet.  Entering  the  system  at  Wuchow  is
the  Cassia  River,  running  south  from  the  provincial  capital,
Kweilin,  from  the  head  waters  of  which  a  small  canal  gives
access  to  the  head  waters  of  the  Hsiang  River,  flowing
through  Hunan  into  the  Yangtze.  The  people  are  a  riotous
lot,  considering  brigandage  and  rebellion  the  natural  concomitants ­
  of  a  bad  harvest  ;  it  was  in  Kwangsi  that  the
Taiping  rebellion  took  its  rise,  and  the  latest  of  the  rebellions ­
  of  China  was  that  of  Kwangsi  1902-5.  Its  natural
products  are  not  important,  with  the  exception  of  aniseed,
of  which  the  province  has  almost  a  world  monopoly  ;  it
comes  from  two  districts,  one  lying  around  Poseh,  the
other,  giving  oil  of  better  quality,  lying  across  the  Tonkin
frontier  between  Lungchow  and  Langson.  In  minerals
the  province  offers  great,  but  as  yet  unproved,  possibilities.
A  geologist  has  stated,  though  not  with  the  sense  of  responsibility ­
  attaching  to  a  report,  that  within  one  square
mile  he  found  by  boring  coal,  iron,  copper,  and  lead,  a
richness  probably  unsurpassed  by  many  individual  square
miles  in  the  world.  These  minerals  are  all  known  to  exist,
as  well  as  gold,  silver,  antimony,  asbestos,  bismuth,  etc.
Timber  is  cut  on  the  mountains  of  the  north-west.  In  the
province  are  two  treaty  ports.
Wuchow  (23°  29'  N.,  m°  20'  E.),  a  city  of  65,000  inhabitants, ­
  opened  as  a  treaty  port  in  1897,  is  well  placed
for  its  purpose.  Its  treaty  port  status  enables  the  trader
to  carry  his  goods,  import  or  export,  past  the  numerous  and
vexatious  likin  barriers  of  Kwangtung  ;  and  at  Wuchow