104 ICE-HOUSES. [Cuar. Vil. 
there was a great demand during the summer 
months. This shows that the Chinese language 
differs so much in different provinces, that a native 
of Canton and another in the north cannot under- 
stand each other: and indeed this is so much the 
case, that my Macao servant was almost entirely 
useless to me in the north, in so far as the language 
was concerned. In this instance the Chinese word 
“ Ping” —or I should rather say sound — means 
both soldier and ice, and it immediately struck my 
servant, who I suppose had never seen ice in his 
life, that the buildings in question were soldiers’ 
houses instead of ice-houses ; rather cold barracks, 
T should think. 
I was much struck with the simplicity of the 
construction of these ice-houses, and my only doubt 
about them was whether or not the ice would keep 
well in them throughout the hot summer months. 
The results of my investigation I sent in the follow- 
ing letter to Professor Lindley, who published it in 
the “ Gardener’s Chronicle” for 1845 : — 
‘““A short time before I left England, you 
published in the ‘ Gardener’s Chronicle’ a number 
of letters and plans for the construction of ice- 
houses, but, as far as I can remember, nothing at 
all resembling the Chinese one which I shall now 
describe to you. On the right bank of the Ning-po © 
river, above the town and fort of Chinhae, and in 
various other parts of the north of China, I have 
met with these ice-houses. When I inspected them 
for the first time last winter (1843), their construc- 
