256 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. XVI. 
Such were the kind of persons with whom I shared 
the shelter of a public building on this eventful morn- 
ing. They were not inquisitive, but left me to my own 
meditations, which were not very pleasant ones. I had 
three hundred le of a mountain road before me ere I 
could reach the head of the river, which has one of its 
sources on the northern side of the Bohea mountains, 
and in its course joins the Green River, which falls into 
the bay of Hang-chow. This was a most serious under- 
taking; and if I could not procure a chair I should 
be obliged to discard the greater part of my luggage, 
amongst which were the tea-plants I had procured on the 
Woo-e hills. I began to wish now that I had gone down 
the river Min to Foo-chow-foo, instead of coming across 
these mountains ; but there was no use in repining, the 
die was cast, and I must press onwards. 
In about an hour Sing-Hoo returned, bringing a chair 
and men, whom he had procured without any difficulty 
in another part of the town from that in which we had 
spent the night. Silently but heartily I bade adieu to 
Pouching-hien and the beggars, and getting into my 
chair continued my journey. 
The road from Pouching-hien to the foot of the 
mountains (I was now travelling in a northerly direction) 
led through an undulating country. Rice was the prin- 
cipal crop in the fields, but considerable quantities of 
tobacco were cultivated on all the spots a little higher 
than the irrigated rice-lands. The tallow-tree was again 
met with in great abundance. 
Forty le north from Pouching-hien we passed through 
a large town, the name [of which I neglected to write 
