Chap. IX. 



IRON-ORE. 



177 



self, dressed, and evidently prepared for a journey. 

 " Ah ! " said he, "I told you I would see you 

 before you started, and I have made up my mind 

 to go with you and show you the road." As he 

 seemed a most amusing character, and, moreover, 

 was most useful in enabling us to make arrange- 

 ments with coolies and chair-bearers, we made no 

 objection to his joining our party. And we had 

 no reason to regret the circumstance, for he was 

 invaluable as a guide and afforded a rich fund of 

 amusement. Our coolies being at last engaged 

 and loaded with some few necessaries, and our 

 mountain-chairs all ready, we despatched our boats 

 to another part of the country — a place called 

 Ning-kang-jou, some miles further west and on 

 another branch of the river. 



About twenty or twenty-five miles south-west 

 from Too-poo-dow there is a beautiful mountain- 

 pass called by the natives Yang-ling. Here, in 

 addition to the common trees of these mountains, the 

 funereal cypress grows in great abundance, and 

 forms a striking feature in the landscape. This 

 part of the country is said by the Eev. Dr. Medhurst 

 to be rich in iron-ore. At a place called Sha-k'he 

 there is an iron-foundry. " The furnace for melting 

 the iron was about five feet high and three feet in 

 diameter, filled to the brim with charcoal and iron- 

 ore. The blast was formed by a rude box-bellows, 

 and at the time we arrived the whole was in a 

 state of operation. We asked them from whence 

 they obtained tlieir iron-ore, and tliey pointed to 



