i 
Chap. VIII. VALE OF NAN-CHE. 141 
which is not in Soo-chow." My visit being fruitless, I 
returned to my boat, when we got under way, and pro- 
ceeded on our journey. 
Tlie vale of Nan-che is even more beautiful than that ! 
in which the city of Yen-chow stands. It is surrounded ; 
by hills, dotted over with clumps of pine, cypress, and 
camphor-trees, traversed by a branching and winding 
river, and extremely fertile. The tallow-tree is culti- 
vated in great abundance ; in many places, indeed, the | 
lowland is nearly covered with it. At the time of my 
visit its fresh green leaves contrasted finely with the 
dark and sombre cypress and pine. The whole valley 
seems, as it were, one vast and beautiful garden, sur- 
rounded and apparently hemmed in by hills ; but as we 
sailed up the river to the Vv^estward the hills gradually 
opened and the valley became much broader. I found 
afterwards that it extended from Ta-yang, a little above 
Yen-chow-foo, to Chang-shan on the borders of the pro- 
vince of Kiang-see. The distant hills seemed rugged 
and barren, and, even with Chinese industry, quite 
unfitted for agricultural purposes. 
Ninety le from Nan-che I arrived at a small place 
named Long-yeou, also on the banks of the river. Three 
pretty pagodas were seen here, all placed on the most 
picturesque spots that could be found. The camphor- - 
tree is very numerous and attains a large size. It was 
. the time of the summer harvest when I was there, and 
the people were busily employed in cutting and threshing 
out their crops of wheat and barley. Hemp was largely 
cultivated for making ropes and other articles much in 
demand amongst the boat-people. I also observed large 
