38 WITH BOAT AND GUN IN THE YANGTZE VALLEY. 



useless herbage. They sowed it with the few grains they had brought with them and were 

 not long in reaping a harvest. Some Chinese families, who with difficulty gained a 

 subsistence on the mainland, betook themselves to the new island, in the hope of bettering 

 their condition, and parted amongst them the unoccupied land. These newcomers, not 

 being able to cultivate the whole extent of the land they had appropriated, invited other 

 families from the mainland, and yielded them portions of their lands in perpetuity, the 

 newcomers paying them, however, a reserved annual rent called kwo-t'eo, which is still levied. 



"T'sungming is about twenty leagues long and five to six wide. It contains one city 

 of the third rank, enclosed by lofty walls, rising from good terraces, and surrounded by a 

 fosse full of water. The country is intersected by numberless canals, bounded by raised 

 causeways to prevent inundation, for the entire district is level, without a rising ground. 

 The air is wholesome and temperate, the country pleasant. 



. . . . "The edifices on the island are not magnificent; with the exception of 

 those of rich folk, which are built of brick and covered with tiles, they are all of reeds, 

 wattled, with thatched roofs. 



"The island affords no game, but abounds in great geese, ducks (wild and domes- 

 ticated), fowls, swine, and buffaloes, the latter used only for farm work .... There 

 are reckoned three descriptions of land in the island. The first, situated towards the north, 

 and is not cultivated, being covered with reeds, which bring in a considerable revenue. 

 There being no timber on the island, these reeds are employed in part in constructing the 

 wattled huts of the inhabitants, while the remainder serve to burn, and are used as fuel in 

 the ordinary furnaces, not only on the island but on the mainland. The second category 

 extends from the borders of the first to the sea on the southern side of the island. These 

 lands produce two harvests in the year: the first, of grains in general, reaped in May; the 

 second, of cotton and rice, the cotton gathered in September, the rice a little later. The 

 third, though to all appearance barren, yields more revenue than both the others. It consists 

 of large salt lands, lying in several cantons in the north of the island, which produce salt 

 not only for the use of the inhabitants but leave a residue for export." 



The actual distance to Tsungming from Woosung Spit Buoy by the north-west of 

 Bush Island is II miles: to the extremity of that island 6: and thence to Tsungming itself 

 5. The island at the present day is 45 miles long and 8 miles wide, and is estimated to 

 contain a population of some 600,000. Its distance from the north bank of the Yangtze is 

 20 miles, so that this mighty river measures in width, from Woosung on the south to the 

 north bank, about 40 miles, excellent wild-fowl shooting being found the whole distance. 

 Old foreign residents used to go commonly as far as the north bank where some thirty or 

 forty years back they got excellent sport. That was, however, in the old days when 

 Shanghai was troubled with but one mail a month, and merchants had ample leisure time 

 between whiles. On the south side the whole extent of the island down to Drinkwater 

 Point is a favourite haunt of wild-fowl, as the prevailing winds in winter are northerly and 

 the water under the lee of the land is smooth. 



Another locality readily accessible from Shanghai, where geese are abundant, is the 

 Beacon Flats, an expanse of mud, drying at low water, outside the Kiutoan Small Beacon, 

 about eight miles down the river from the Woosung Spit Buoy and extending a considerable 

 distance down the south bank. 



