1835.] Memorandum of an Excursion to the Tea Hills. 95 



animal from gnawing the rope. The beast hangs suspended in the air 

 at the mercy of the villagers, who dispatch him by means of clubs or 

 bamboos hardened in the fire, and pointed at the end so as to resem- 

 ble pikes. 



Arrived at the highest point of the ascent over Koijandowng , the 

 large and pretty town of Rambree, surrounded with hills axid divided 

 by a creek that is seen in the distance meandering towards the sea, 

 appears spread out to view in the vale below. 



(To be continued.) 



III. — Memorandum of an Excursion to the Tea Hills which produce the 



description of Tea known in Commerce under the designation of Ankoy 



Tea. By G. J. Gordon, Esq. 



[Communicated by Dr. N. Wallich, Sec. Com. Tea Culture.] 



Having been disappointed in my expectations of being enabled to> 

 visit the Bohea hills, I was particularly anxious to have an oppor- 

 tunity of personally inspecting the tea plantations in the black-tea 

 district of the next greatest celebrity, in order to satisfy myself 

 regarding several points relative to the cultivation on which the 

 information afforded by different individuals was imperfect or discor- 

 dant. 



Mr. Gutzlaff accordingly took considerable pains to ascertain, for 

 me, from the persons who visited the ship, the most eligible place for 

 landing with the view of visiting the Ankoy hills ; and Hwuy Taoubay 

 was at length fixed upon as the most safe and convenient, both 

 from its being out of the way of observation of any high Chinese 

 functionaries who might be desirous of thwarting our project, and 

 from its being equally near the tea-hills, as any other part of the 

 coast, at which we could land. As laid down in the map of the 

 Jesuits, there is a small river which falls into the head of this bay, by 

 which we were told we should be able to proceed a good part of our 

 way into the interior. We should of course have preferred proceed- 

 ing by the Ankoy river, which is represented in the same map as 

 having its source to the west of Ngau-ki-hyen and falling into the 

 river which washes Sneu-chee-foia, were it not for the apprehension 

 of being impeded or altogether intercepted by the public functionaries 

 of that city. In order to make ourselves as independent as possible of 

 assistance from the people, we resolved to dispense with every article 

 of equipment which was not necessary for health and safety. The 

 weather had for some days been comparatively cold, the thermometer 

 falling to 55° at sunrise and not getting higher than 66° during the 



