192 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. XI. 
immense population of men, women, and particularly 
children. 
On approaching Soo-chow some hills were seen, 
bounding the level plain, which I afterwards found were 
some few miles west from the town itself. The whole 
country here, as well as near Cading, is one vast rice- 
field. Many females are employed in driving the water- 
wheels, generally three or four to each wheel; these 
ladies have large feet, or rather their feet are of the 
natural size ; indeed, if they were cramped in the usual 
way it would be impossible for them to work on the 
water-wheel. Small feet, however, are general amongst 
the lower classes who work in the fields, for of the 
hundreds whom I observed hoeing the cotton, or en- 
gaged in other agricultural operations, but a small pro- 
portion had feet of the natural size. 
A few miles on the east of Soo-chow there is a large 
and beautiful lake, twelve or fifteen miles across, through 
which the boats from Sung-kiang-foo and other places 
in that direction approach the city. After passing this 
lake, the canal, which had widened considerably, now 
began to contract ; bridges here and there were passed, 
villages and small towns lined the banks, and everything 
denoted the approach to a city of some size and impor- 
tance. It was a delightful summer's evening on the 
23rd of June when I approached this far-famed town. 
The moon was up, and with a fair light breeze my little 
boat scudded swiftly, its masts and sails reflected in the 
clear water of the canal ; the boats thickened as we went 
along, the houses became more crowded and larger, 
