44 WHERE BEST BLACK TEAS ARE FOUND. 



Mid-range tea, and is gathered to be made into 

 Souchong." Here, I imagine, most of the East 

 India Company's best Souchong teas, as the chop, 

 Lap Sing, &c, were made. The districts now 

 about to be described are those where the Con- 

 gou teas are produced. The manuscript proceeds 

 thus : — " The towns, which extend about 70 ly 

 from Vu-ye Shan are called Py Kung, Tien Czu 

 Ty, Tong Moo Kuon, Nan-Ngan, Chang Ping, 

 Shu-Fang, &c. The leaves are thin and small, and 

 of no substance ; and, whether green* or black, or 

 made with much care, yet have no fragrance.^ This 

 tea, however, is that used for Congou in quarter 

 chests, and is called Way Shan tea, i, e. outside-hill 

 tea, or outer-range tea. Tea is also produced as 

 far as Yen Ping, Shau-U, Keu-U, Geu Ning, Kien 

 Yang, Heu Shan, and other places, but is unfit 

 for use." There is reason to believe, however, that 

 the tea from the latter places is constantly mixed 

 with low Congou, and that many of the Congous 

 technically termed faint, whether the leaf be green 

 or black, come from these places, as will be seen 

 by the following account received from another 

 Chinese, where some of the above places are enu- 

 merated as producing tea forming a part of the tea 

 imported as Congou. 



* By green is meant the green leaves found in black tea, 

 termed by the English dealers yellow leaf. 



\ Another Chinese observes that " the flavour is bitter, the 

 leaf yellow, and the tea will not keep long." 



