162 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



sary. They rear, however, though in comparatively small number, all the domestic 

 animals of Europe ; the horse, the ass, the ox, the buffalo, the dog, the cat, the pig ; but 

 their horses are small and ill-formed. The camels of China are often no larger than our 

 horses ; the other breeds are good, and particularly that of pigs. The kind of dog most 

 common in the south from Canton to Tong-chin-tcheu, is the spaniel with straight ears. 

 More to the north, as far as Pekin, the dogs have generally hanging ears and slender 

 tails. 



983. The Chinese are exceedingly sparing in the use of animal food. Those important 

 articles of milk, butter, and cheese, are wholly unknown to them. The broad-tailed 

 sheep are kept in the hilly parts of the country, and brought down to the plains ; but 

 the two animals most esteemed, because they contribute most to their own subsistence, 

 and are kept at the cheapest rate, are the hog and the duck. Whole swarms of the 

 latter are bred in large barges, surrounded with projecting stages covered with coops, 

 for the reception of these birds, which are taught, by the sound of the whistle, to 

 jump into the rivers and canals in search of food, and by another call to return to 

 their lodgings. They are usually hatched by placing their eggs, as the ancient Egyp- 

 tians were wont to do, in small ovens, or sandbaths, in order that the same female may 

 continue to lay eggs throughout the year, which would not be the case if she had a 

 young brood to attend. The ducks, when killed, are usually split open, salted, and 

 dried in the sun ; in which state they afford an excellent relish to rice or other 

 vegetables. 



984. The wild animals are numerous. Elephants are common in the south of China, 

 and extend as far as the thirtieth degree of north latitude in the provinces of Kiangnau 

 and of Yiyi-nau. The unicorn rhinoceros lives on the sides of the marshes in the pro- 

 vinces of Yun-nau and Quan-si. The lion, according to Du Halde and Trigault, 

 is a stranger to China ; but the animal figured by Neuhoff, under the name of the tiger, 

 seems to be the maneless lion known to the ancients, described by Oppian, and seen by 

 M. Olivier on the Euphrates. Marco Polo saw lions in Fo-kien : there were some at the 

 court of Kublai Khan. Tlie true tiger probably shows himself in the most southerly pro- 

 vinces, where there are also various kinds of monkies, the long-armed gibbou or Simia 

 tongimana ; the Simia influens, or ugly baboon, and the Simia silvana, which mimics the 

 gestures and even the laughter of men. The musk animal, which seems peculiar to 

 the central plateau of Asia, sometimes goes down into the western provinces of China. 

 The deer, the boar, the fox, and other animals, some of which are little known, are 

 found in the forests. 



985. Several of the birds of the country are distinguished for beauty of form and 

 brilliancy of colour ; such as the gold and silver pheasants, which we see often painted 

 on the Chinese papers, and which have been brought to this country to adorn our 

 aviaries ; also the Chinese teal, remarkable for its two beautiful orange crests. The 

 insects, and butterflies are equally distinguished for their uncommon beauty. Silkworms 

 are common, and seem to be indigenous in the country. From drawings made in China, 

 it appears to possess almost all the common fishes of Europe; and M. Bloch, and M. 

 de Lacepede had made us acquainted with several species peculiar to it. The Chinese 

 gold-fish (^Cyprinus auratus)y which, in that country, as with us, is kept in basins as an 

 ornament, is a native of a lake at the foot of the high mountain of Tien-king, near 

 the city of Tchang-hoo, in the province of Tche-kiang. From that place it has been 

 taken to all the other provinces of the empire, and to Japan. It was in 1611 that it was 

 first brought to England. 



986. The Jtsheries of China, as already noticed, are free to all ; there are no restric- 

 tions on any of the great lakes, the rivers, or canals. The subject is not once men- 

 tioned in the Leu-lee ; but the heavy duties on salt render the use of salt-fish in China 

 almost unknown. Besides the net, the line, and the spear, the Chinese have several 

 ingenious methods of catching fish. In the middle parts of the empire, the fishing 

 corvorant {Pelicanus piscator) is almost universally in use ; in other parts, they catch 

 them by torch light ; and a very common practice is, to place a board painted white 

 along the edge of the boat, which, reflex;ting the moon's rays into the water, induces 

 ithe fish to spring towards it, supposing it to be a moving sheet of water, when they fall 

 into the boat. 



987. The imjdements of Chinese agriculture are few and simple. The plough has one 

 handle, but no coulter; there are different forms: some may be drawn by women, 

 (Jig. 156 a), others are for stirring the soil under water, (6), and the largest is drawn by 

 a single buffalo or ox (c). Horses are never employed for that purpose. The carts 

 are low, narrow, and the wheels so diminutive as often to be made without spokes. A 

 large cylinder is sometimes used to separate the grain from the ear, and they have a 

 winnowing machine similar to that which was invented in Europe about a century ago. 

 The mosti ngenious machines are those for raising water for the purposes of irrigation ; 



3 very ingenious wheel for this purpose has been figured by Sir George Staunton ; but 



