226 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. XIV. 
in different provinces as it does in the hills. The level 
of these valleys or plains is generally very low ; in many 
instances below that of the rivers and canals. In the 
south the soil consists of a strong stiff clay mixed with a 
small portion of sand, but containing scarcely any vege- 
table matter or humus. This is its composition about 
Canton and Macao, and in fact over all the provinces of 
the south, unless perhaps in the vicinity of large towns, 
where its natural character has been altered to a certain 
extent by the influence of manure. Where the hills 
lose their barren character, four or five hundred miles 
to the northward from Hong-kong, a visible change takes 
place also in the soil of the valleys and plains. In the 
district of the Min, for example, instead of being almost 
entirely composed of strong stiff clay, it is mixed with a 
considerable portion of vegetable matter, and is an ex- 
cellent strong loam, not unlike that which we find in 
some of our best wheat-lands in England and Scotland, 
and capable of producing excellent crops. As a general 
rule it may be observed that the lower the valleys are, 
the more the soil approaches in its nature to the stiff 
clay of the south, and vice versa. For instance, the 
Shanghae district is several feet higher above the level 
of the rivers and canals than that of Ning-po, and 
the soil of the latter consists more of a stiff clay and 
has less vegetable matter in its composition, and is 
far from being so fertile as the cotton district of 
Shanghae. 
Rice, being the chief article of food, is, of course, the 
staple production of the country, more particularly in 
the south, where two crops of it can easily be raised in 
