LLAMOO TREES 91 
April 26.—Left at daylight; the weather very fine 
but 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 be of better construction than those passed 
lower down. The boat was made fast to the bank for 
the night off a hamlet 150 li from Chung-king. 
April 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 
lamoo, 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 generally 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- 
