84 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. IV. 



large dealers who buy this article from the farmers 

 and priests, refine and sort it, form it into chops, and 

 forward it to Shanghae or Canton, where it is sold to 

 the foreign merchant. Seven or eight hundred chops 

 are said to be sent out of this town annually. I 

 observed also a great number of carpenters' shops for 

 the manufacture of chests, a trade which of itself 

 must employ a large number of men. In fact, this 

 town and the surrounding populous district may be 

 said to be supported by the foreign tea-trade. 



Nearly all the way from Yen-chow-foo the river 

 was bounded by high hills on each side. Now, how- 

 ever, they seemed, as it were, to fall back, and left an 

 extensive and beautiful valley, through the middle of 

 which the river flowed. Nearly all this low land is 

 under tea cultivation, the soil is rich and fertile, and 

 the bushes consequently grow most luxuriantly. I 

 had never before seen the tea-plant in such a flourish- 

 ing condition, and this convinced me that soil had 

 much to do with the superiority of the Hwuv-chow 

 green teas. 



The very sandy soil near the river yielded good 

 crops of the ground-nut (Arachis hypogcea). 



After spending about an hour in the town we in- 

 quired where we could hire a chair to take us onward 

 about thirty le further, and were directed to an inn or 

 tea-house, where chairs are let on hire. A circum- 

 stance happened in this inn which gave me some 

 amusement at the time, and which 1 have often 

 laughed at since. When we entered this house we 

 found a great number of travellers of all ranks ; some 



