24 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. II. 
in the most triumphant manner, "Look at that.'* I 
acknowledged it was very fine, and promised, if he would 
allow me to cut it off, I would wear it for his sake. He 
seemed very much disgusted at the idea of such a loss, 
and the others had a good laugh at him. 
The hills in this part of the country are more barren 
than any I ever recollect to have seen either before or 
since ; consisting entirely of bare rocks and gravelly 
sand, as hard and as solid as stone, with scarcely a vestige 
of vegetation. In height they vary from five hundred 
to two thousand feet above the level of the sea. Further 
inland the ground is more level : it is also much more 
fertile, and yields good crops of rice, sweet potatoes, and 
earthnut, besides a considerable quantity of ginger and 
sugar. 
The island of Koo-lung-soo is situated opposite to the 
town of Amoy, and commands it. At the time of the 
war this island was taken by the English troops, and 
occupied until the spring of 1845, when the Chinese 
paid a part of the ransom money, and it was again 
placed in their hands. It is scarcely two miles long, and 
of irregular breadth, and seems to have been, before the 
war, the residence of some of the principal inhabitants 
in this part of the country. Most of the houses on the 
island are in ruins, but their remains show what they 
were, and prove the wealth of their former residents. I 
could not look upon the ruined walls, the pretty fish- 
ponds, all overgrown with weeds and filled up with 
rubbish, the remains of gardens ruinous as the houses, 
without wishing most sincerely that war, and all its 
attending calamities, might long be kept from my own 
