BRICK OR TILE TEA. 191 



inwards, and the joints neatly secured by a sewing 

 of thongs.* The finer descriptions of brick tea 

 sent into Mongolia are packed in boxes and canis- 

 ters like other tea ; and probably come from other 

 parts of China. 



At Hi, the principal place of banishment of the 

 Chinese, situated on the extreme western frontier of 

 Mongolia, the brick tea is known by the name of 

 Hu Cha: and, thus, my informant imagined it came 

 from Hu Quong, the adjoining province to Szu- 

 chuen. 



Pallas gives us a translation of an inscription in 

 the Mongolian language, which he found printed on 

 the coarse yellow paper envelope of some brick tea ; 

 which, so far as can be judged from the ortho- 

 graphy given, indicates that the tea which this 

 paper enveloped was made in the province of 

 Kiang Nan. 



I was informed by the Chinese that a superior 

 kind of brick tea is made in the Bohea or Black Tea 

 country, I have received specimens of this tea, 

 which were brought down from this district ex- 

 pressly for me. One exhibited the complete twist 

 and curl of the leaf, but forcibly compressed into 

 oblong masses ; the other bore no trace or form of 

 the leaf. Examples of these two conditions of leaf 

 maybe seen in a specimen of Po Ul tea, a medicinal 

 tea, and of brick tea in the Museum of the Royal 



* Moorcroft's Travels, vol. i. p. 350. 



