222 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap, XIV. 
of charges upon each chest or picul of tea when it 
arrives at the port whence it is to be exported. If I 
am able to give this information with any degree of 
accuracy, we shall then see what amount of profits the 
Chinese have been in the habit of making by this trade, 
and whether there is any probability of their being able 
to lower their prices, and so, with a reduction of our 
own import duties, to place a healthful and agreeable 
beverage — 
" The cup 
That cheers but not inebriates," — 
within the reach of the whole of our population. 
I shall, therefore, endeavour to give a description of 
the route by which the black teas are brought from the 
country where they are made to the ports of exportation 
—Canton or Shanghae. We have already seen that 
nearly all the teas grown in the fine districts about 
Woo-e-shan are brought to the city of Tsong-gan-hien by 
the merchants who buy them from the small tea-farmers, 
and that they are there made into chops and sold to the 
dealers connected with the foreign tea-trade, the chief . 
part of whom are Canton men. 
A chop of tea having been purchased by one of these 
merchants, a number of coolies are engaged to carry the 
chests northward, across the Bohea mountains, to Hokow, 
or rather to the small town of Yuen-shan, a few miles 
from Hokow, to which it is sent by boat. If the teas 
are of the common kind, each coolie carries two chests 
slung over his shoulders on his favourite bamboo. These 
chests are often much knocked about during the journey 
over the steep and rugged mountains, as it is frequently 
