SOIL THE MOST SUITABLE. 67 



Mountains, we have no data to reason upon beyond 

 those specimens of soil already referred to, the cha- 

 racter of which is a ferruginous clay mixed with 

 sand. If the " fragmented stones " they contain, 

 together with their ferruginous character, and the 

 quantity of oxyde of iron, be considered as indica- 

 tive of the rock of which they are formed, it may, 

 perhaps, be allowable to conclude, that the moun- 

 tains and hills of this particular district consist 

 of granitic, porphyritic, and sandstone formation. 

 These, indeed, with basalt, limestone, and schist 

 constitute the character of the mountains of China, 

 wherever they have come under the observation of 

 Europeans, whether at Canton, along the sea coast, 

 at Amoy, the island of Chusan, or in the interior.* 



Thus there seems much analogy between the 

 specimens here alluded to and that brought from 

 Japan by Von Siebold ; also in the structure of the 

 rocks and mountains of these two countries, and 

 again between these and the rocks of San Paolo, 

 described by M. Guillemin, so far as their being 

 all of igneous origin. 



But though the constituents of any of these 

 rocks be the same, it is well known their com- 



* Dr. Abel observes : " Judging from the specimens collected 

 in our route through the province of Kiang Nan, whence the 

 green tea is procured, its rocks consist chiefly of sandstone, 

 schistus, and granite." " The plantations were always at some 

 elevation above the plains on a kind of gravelly soil, formed in 

 some places by disintegrated sandstone, and in others by the 

 debris of primitive rock." {Journey in China, p. 224.) 



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