82 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. VI. 
ice, and seem to answer the end most admirably. You 
are probably aware, 
from my former de- 
scriptions of the coun- 
try, that the town of 
Ning-po stands in the 
midst of a level plain 
from twenty to thirty 
miles across. These 
ice-houses are built on 
the sides of the river 
in the centre of the 
plain, completely ex- 
posed to the sun — a 
sun, too, very different 
in its effects from what 
we experience in Eng- 
land, — clear, fierce, 
and burning, which 
would try the effi- 
ciency of our best Eng- 
lish ice-houses as well 
as it does the constitu- 
tion of an Englishman 
in China. 
" The bottom of 
these ice - houses is 
nearly on a level with 
the surrounding fields, 
and is generally about 
twenty yards long, by fourteen broad. The walls, which 
