130 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
ClIAP. VIII. 
boat, and proceeded up the Hwuy-cliow, or Green River. 
I may remind the reader that this river falls into the sea 
a little below Hang-chow-foo. Being, as it were, the 
highway or chief road from the northern parts of Fokien, 
as well as from Kiang-see and Hwuy-chow, to the large 
towns of Hang-chow-foo, Soo-chow-foo, and Shanghae, 
on the eastern coast, nearly all the black and green teas 
of commerce, which are exported from northern China, 
come down this way. As this subject may prove of some 
interest to the merchant, I shall take a survey of the 
whole route in a subsequent chapter. 
When we got upon the Green River, having a fair 
wind, we sailed rapidly onwards. There were several 
passengers on board our boat besides ourselves. They 
were all country people from the westward, knew little 
of foreigners, and seemed to have no idea that I was 
one. My servant, I believe, told them that I came from 
some far distant province beyond the great wall, and 
with this information, indefinite as it was, they seemed 
to be perfectly satisfied. Besides, I was now well 
acquainted with their habits and manners, I could eat 
with the chopsticks as well as any of them, and my dress 
was, I believe, scrupulously correct, even to the glossy 
black tail, which had been grafted on my own hair, and 
which hung gracefully down nearly to my heels. 
I have already described the scenery on this beautiful 
river as it appeared to me on a former occasion. It was 
autumn then, and vegetation was tinged with many 
diiferent hues. Now it was spring-time ; the rains had 
begun to fall, and hill and valley were clothed in the 
liveliest green. The hill-streams were gushing down the 
