178 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. Chap. IX. 



through which we passed. This bridge is taken 

 away when the river is likely to become much 

 swollen by heavy rains. Although this city ranks 

 in the second class, it is not a very important one, at 

 least in a mercantile point of view. It is not large, 

 its walls are scarcely more than two miles in circum- 

 ference, and there are many large spaces inside on 

 which there are no buildings. Politically it ranks 

 higher than Nan-che, but it is far from being such 

 an important place. We remained here for a few 

 hours to procure some necessaries, and then proceeded 

 onwards. 



About a mile above the city two rivers unite their 

 waters : one comes from the south-west, and has its 

 source on the northern side of the Fokien mountains ; 

 the other flows from the west, and rises a few miles 

 above Chang-shan, the town to which I was now 

 bound. We went up the left branch, which was very 

 narrow, shallow, and oftentimes rapid. 



In the evening we stopped with some other boats 

 like our own near a small village, where we proposed 

 to pass the night. The day had been very warm, 

 and the moschetoes were now becoming very trouble- 

 some. The night before this, neither my servant nor 

 myself had been able to close our eyes, and I now 

 saw with dread these pests actually swarming around 

 us, and anticipated another sleepless night. Our 

 boatmen, who heard us talking about them, asked 

 Sing-Hoo why he did not go and buy some moscheto 

 tobacco, which they said might be had in the village, 

 and which would drive all the moschetoes out of the 



