122 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA, 
Chap. VII. 
hunted him down. Coppice after coppice was afterwards 
beat in the same manner with varied success, and when 
evening came we had no reason to be dissatisfied with 
our day's sport. 
Returning to our boat, weary and ravenously hungry, 
we enjoyed our dinner, fought our battles o'er again, and 
enjoyed a sound and refreshing sleep. Next morning I 
rose early, and walked across the hills to the ancient 
temple of Tein-tung, a distance of five or six miles. 
When I reached the top of the first pass, where there is 
a small temple and a ruined pagoda, the view was grand 
indeed. Behind me lay the wide valley of Ning-po, 
watered by a network of rivers and canals, and exceed- 
ingly fertile. Before me lay a quiet and lovely valley, 
bounded apparently on all sides by hills. Rice was 
growing in the valley, and patches of tea were seen 
dotted on the lower sides of the hills ; but all above 
this was in a state of nature, untouched by the hand of 
man. 
All around wild flowers grew in great profusion. The 
yellow Azalea chinensis seemed to paint the hill-sides, 
so large were its flowers and vivid the colours. There 
was another shrub, which is new to botanists, and scarcely 
yet known in Europe, called Amelanchier racemosa, 
not less beautiful than the azalea, and rivalling it in its 
masses of flowers of the purest snowy white. 
As I descended the hill I passed a small and unassuming 
temple, erected, as the tablet states, to the "honoured 
gods of the soil." The accompanpng sketch by Captain 
Cracroft gives a good idea of it. 
Small temples, or " tablets," of this description are 
