246 



PROVINCE OF CHEKIANG. 



Chap. XII. 



explored by foreigners, and therefore a short ac- 

 count of its inhabitants and productions, as ob- 

 served by me during a visit this year, may prove 

 of some interest. Having engaged a small boat 

 at Ningpo to take me up to one of the sources of 

 the river, which flows past the walls of that city, 

 I left late one evening with the first of the flood- 

 tide. We sailed on until daylight next morning, 

 when the ebb made strong against us, and obliged 

 us to make our boat fast to the river's bank, and 

 wait for the next flood. The country through 

 which we had passed during the night was per- 

 fectly flat, and was one vast rice-field, with clumps 

 of trees and villages scattered over it in all direc- 

 tions. Like all other parts of China, where the 

 country is flat and fertile, this portion seemed to 

 be densely populated. We were now no great 

 distance from the hills which bound the south-west 

 side of this extensive plain, — a plain some thirty 

 miles from east to west, and twenty from north to 

 south. Part of the road was the same I had tra- 

 velled the year before on my way to the Snowy 

 Yalley. 



When the tide turned to run up we again got 

 under way, and proceeded on our journey. In the 

 afternoon we reached the hills ; and as our little 

 boat followed the winding course of the stream, 

 tho wide and fertile plain through which we had 

 passed was shut out from our view. About four 

 o'clock in the afternoon we reached the town of 

 Ning-Kang-jou, beyond which the river is not 



