SILKWORM-OAKS OF XORTIIEKN CUINA. 483 



Treaty of Tien-tsing, and situated in the Mancliurian province of 

 Tung-t'ien or Sheng-king *, contains some interesting details, 

 derived from personal investigation, regarding " mountain silk," 

 the product of the larvae of a moth feeding on oak-leaves, and 

 which has of late attracted some attention in Europe f. Blue-books 

 are so seldom a favourite class of literature with students of 

 natural science, that it is unlikely many who hear this paper 

 will have met with the able Eeport above referred to J, from 

 which, therefore, I think it may be worth while to make the fol- 

 lowing extracts : — - 



'* There are two crops of the mountain cocoon, a 'chun' or 

 spring crop, and a * tsew ' or autumn crop. The latter is col- 

 lected in the last half of September and in October, and the co- 

 coons are brought to market during this latter month. At this 

 period the silk-growers pick out the best of the cocoons for the pro- 

 duction in spring of the butterfly and worm for the spring crop. 

 They are preserved in baskets, which are hung up in the Chinese 

 dwelling-rooms. These almost always face the south, thus op- 

 posing a blank back wall to the cold northerly winds prevalent 

 in winter, and getting from their southerly windows the full ad- 

 vantage of the sun in that season, when, during nine days out 

 of ten, there is a clear blue sky. Besides this, the dwelling- 

 rooms are partially heated by the warmth emanating from the 

 surface of the kang, a brick bencli which occupies about one- 

 third of the room, which serves as a sleeping-place at night, as 

 seat, &c., during the day, and inside which is a winding flue, with 

 an aperture at one end, in which a fire of millet-stalks is occa- 



In the map of the Rurisian Empu-e which accompanies Ledebour's ' Flora 

 ErOssica,' Schinking is given as a synonym of Manchuria, and embraces the ter- 

 ritories known to geographers as Kirin and Tsitsihar, with the part of Inner 

 Mongolia situated to the east of the Soyortsi mountains. 



t Mr. W. H, Lay, in his Eeport on the trade of Chefoo for the year I8G0, 

 tlms refers to what, I suppose, is the same production. ** Amongst the ar- 

 ticles that can be exported from Chefoo, there is brown silk produced from the 

 wild silkworms that swarm in the mountain-forests ; and the quantity of this 

 article that could be brought into the market, if prices suited, may be computed 

 at not less than 12,000 bales a year. This silk is of diilerent quah'ties, accord- 

 ing to the process and care adopted in reeling it from the cocoons; and some 

 of it is well adapted for manufactures. The natives weave plain silk goods 

 from it, called '* pongees," and about 100,000 pieces of these stuffs could be 



bought annually." 



$ Those who desire to refer to it will find it printed m extenso in the 

 'Commercial Reports from H.M. Consuls in Chma and Japan, IPO;"},' Lond, 

 1866. 



