Chap. III. SCENERY AND PRODUCTIONS. 



49 



At night, when it became too dark to see our 

 course, the boat was anchored abreast of a small 

 village until the following morning, when we again 

 got under way. We were now forty or fifty miles to 

 the south-west of Hang-chow-foo. 



The hills here had not that rich appearance which 

 those nearer the sea had presented, but they were far 

 more striking in their formation. Their sides were 

 ridged and furrowed in a most remarkable manner, 

 and their summits broken up into many curious peaks 

 and cones. Some were low, others were three or 

 four thousand feet in height, and all were rugged, 

 barren, and wild. 



The river now became narrow, shallow, and in 

 many parts very rapid. Near Hang-chow-foo the 

 country seemed densely populated, but up here there 

 is so little ground capable of cultivation that a nume- 

 rous population could not find subsistence. We only 

 passed two towns of any note, named Fu-yang and 

 Tung-yu, all the way from Hang-chow to Yen-chow- 

 foo, a distance of 380 le. The people in the villages 

 amongst these hills seemed to earn a scanty subsist- 

 ence by cutting firewood and sending it down to the 

 lowland towns for sale. 



My fellow-passengers, who were chiefly merchants 

 and servants, were quiet and inoffensive, indeed they 

 did little else but loll in bed and sleep, except when 

 they were eating or smoking. One of them was a 

 confirmed opium-smoker, and the intoxicating drug 

 had made him a perfect slave. I have seen many 

 opium-smokers in my travels, but this one was the 



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