234 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



of one board yields about as much as will fill a middle-sized salad- 

 bowl, and when dressed up with the usual condiments of onion, 

 salt, vineg-ar, and oil, a most agreeable salad will be composed, and 

 a most acceptable treat to the g'uests at the captain's table. 



It is necessary that the board, as well as the flannel, be scalded, 

 well washed, and dried in the sun, before it can be used again ; — 

 and as one board yields one crop per week, two, or even three 

 boards may be used at the same time, in order to secure a regular 

 supply. Larger boards are not so convenient, because they can 

 only be hung in some by-corner of a cabin, quarter-gallery, or state- 

 room, where they may not only be out of the way, but out of the 

 sun and currents of air. 



The herbs suitable to be raised in this way are, radish, mustard, 

 and common garden-cress. The two first answer best within the 

 tropics ; the last does not, being too delicate and diminutive ; — but 

 this does very well when the ship is no nearer the equator than 

 thirty degrees of latitude. One peck of radish, another of mustard, 

 and two quarts of cress, will be sufficient for an India and China 

 voyage, — a supply of which may be had in China. I. M. 



26. Chinese Method of fattening Fish. — The Chinese are cele- 

 brated for their commercial acumen, indefatigable industry, and 

 natural adroitness, — in making- the most of every gift of nature 

 bestowed on their fertile country. Useful as well as ornamental 

 vegetables engross their every care ; and animals which are the 

 most profitably reared, and which yield the greatest quantity of 

 rich and savoury food, are preferred by them for supplying their 

 larders and stews. Their hortus dietetica would form a consider- 

 able list ; and though they do not use such a variety of butcher's 

 meat and fowl as Europeans do, yet in the articles of pork, geese, 

 and ducks, they surpass, in the use of fish they equal, us, and in 

 their domestication and management of them they excel all other 

 nations. 



A few observations on their piscinas, or fish-stews, is the design 

 of this paper ; not merely as an historical description, but as an 

 object for imitation in this or any other country. 



For twenty or thirty miles round Canton, and as far as the eye 

 can reach on each side of the river on which that city stands, the 

 general face of the country appears nearly a level plain, with but 

 iittle undulation of surface. The level is, however, richly studded 

 with beautiful hills, which diversify the landscape, and seem to rise 

 out of the plain so abruptly, that they form the most picturesque 

 features, united with the most pleasing combinations. The soil of 

 the plain consists of a pure alluvial earth of great fertility and 

 depth, and very retentive of water ; which, by the by, is a proof 

 that, notwithstanding their claim to high chronological antiquity, 

 the waters of the deluge remained much longer (perhaps for ages) 

 On this portion of the continent of Asia, than it did in the interior: 

 and the circumstance of many of their hills being cultivated to the 



