100 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. VII. 
soon have passed far beyond our reach, and left us 
to feel our way in the dark, or plunge through the deep 
muddy canal. Necessity, they say, has no law. " Call 
out to them," said I to my servant, " that if they do not 
immediately stop I will fire into the boat," and at the 
same moment I fired one of my barrels a little way 
ahead. This was quite sufficient. They immediately 
came towards us, and put us quickly over to the other 
side. I paid them for their trouble, and desired them to 
be more civil to the next traveller they might meet 
in the same circumstances. They went off in high 
spirits, and we heard them laughing and joking about 
the adventure long after they had passed out of our 
sight. 
As an agricultural country, the plain of Shanghae 
is by far the richest which I have seen in China, and 
is perhaps unequalled by any district of like extent in 
the world. It is one vast beautiful garden. The hills 
nearest to Shanghae are distant about thirty miles. 
These have an isolated appearance in the extensive 
plain, and are not more than two or three hundred feet 
high. From their summit, on a clear day, I looked 
round in all directions, and was only able to see some 
few hills, apparently having the same isolated character, 
far away on the horizon, to the south ; these, I have 
since ascertained, are near the Tartar city of Chapoo. 
All the rest of the country was a vast level plain, 
without a mountain or a hill to break the monotony of 
the view. The soil is a rich deep loam, and produces 
heavy crops of wheat, barley, rice, and cotton, besides an 
immense quantity of green vegetable crops, such as 
