ClIAP. I. 
LING— MULBERRIES. 
11 
Tai-ho lake. The water is very shallow, and a great 
part of it is covered with the Trapa bicornis — a plant 
called ling by the Chinese. It produces a fruit of a 
very peculiar shape, resembling the head and horns of a 
bullock, and is highly esteemed in all parts of the 
empire. I have seen three distinct species or varieties, 
one of which has fruit of a beautiful red colour. 
Women and boys were sailing about on all parts of 
the lake, in tubs of the same size and form as our 
common washing-tubs, gathering the fruit of the ling. 
I don't know of any contrivance which would have 
answered their purpose better than these rude tubs, for 
they held the fruit as it was gathered as well as the 
gatherer, and at the same time were easily propelled 
through the masses of ling without doing the plants any 
injury. The sight of a number of people swimming 
about on the lake, each in his tub, had something very 
ludicrous about it 
After we had passed the lake, the banks of the canal, 
and indeed the greater part of the country, were 
covered with mulberry-trees. Silk is evidently the 
staple production in this part of China. During the 
space of two days — and in that time I must have 
travelled upwards of a hundred miles — I saw little else 
than mulberry-trees. They were evidently carefully 
cultivated, and in the highest state of health, producing 
fine, large, and glossy leaves. When it is remembered 
that I was going in a straight direction through the 
country, some idea may be formed of the extent of this 
enormous silk district, which probably occupies a circle 
of at least a hundred miles in diameter. And this, it 
