12 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. I. 
must be remembered, is only one of the silk districts 
in China, but it is the principal and the best one. The 
merchant and silk-manufacturer will form a good idea 
of the quantity of silk consumed in China, when told 
that, after the war, on the port of Shanghae being 
opened, the exports of raw silk increased in two or three 
years from 3000 to 20,000 bales. This fact shows, I 
think, the enormous quantity which must have been in 
the Chinese market before the extra demand could 
have been so easily supplied. But as it is with tea, so it 
is with silk, — ^the quantity exported bears but a small 
proportion to that consumed by the Chinese themselves. 
The 17,000 extra bales sent yearly out of the coimtry 
have not in the least degree affected the price of raw 
silk or of silk manufactures. This fact speaks for itself. 
Seh-mun-yuen, a town about 140 le north-east from 
Hang-chow-foo, was the next place of any note which I 
passed. It is apparently a very ancient city, but has no 
trade, and is altogether in a most dilapidated condition. 
The walls were completely overrun with wild shrubs, and 
in many places were crumbling into ruins. It had 
evidently seen better and more prosperous days, which 
had long ago passed by. The boatmen informed me 
that this part of the country abounded in thieves and 
robbers, and that they must not all go to bed at night, 
otherwise something would be stolen from the boat 
before morning. 
We reached the city about three o'clock in the after- 
noon. The morning had been cold and rainy, and the 
boatmen, who were all wet to the skin, refused to pro- 
ceed further that day. I was therefore obliged to make 
