LLAMOO TUBES 91 



April 2G. — Left at daylight ; the weather very fine 

 hut hot, and the scenery beautiful, the country being 

 broken into ravines and valleys with lovely vegetation. 

 No mountains are seen yet. Several villages were 

 passed during the day, and the houses composing them 

 seemed to l)e of better construction than those passed 

 lower down. The boat was made fast to the bank for 

 the ni<>ht off a hamlet 150 li from Chuno-kinsf. 



Ajrril 27. — Started at daylight, and at 8 a.m. 

 passed a walled city on the left bank with a pagoda on 

 the other side of the river nearly opposite. The 

 scenery very fine about here. Clumps of graceful 

 bamboos are mixed with small plantations of the 

 Uamoo, which is a very beautiful tree, having dark 

 green foliage, a grey bark, and a tall but slender habit 

 of growth. Though not growing to any great size, the 

 wood is thought much of by the Chinese carpenter for 

 small articles of furniture, boxes, &c., and it has a 

 fragrant odour. The farmhouses are general^ con- 

 structed under its shade, and it is used by the white 

 heron, so common on the river, as a nesting-place. 

 These birds have a similar habit to the common heron 

 of this country, and form large heronries, the presence 

 of which are thought by the Chinese to bring luck on 

 the ground under which they are found. 



A vexatious delay occurred now, two of the Chung- 



