(Jhap. XIX. THE PEI-HO, 307 
when old, becomes flat-headed, somewhat like the 
cedar of Lebanon ; the other is an arbor-vitse, ap- 
parently distinct from the Thuja orientalis which 
grows about Shanghae and other places in the 
south. The barren hills are said to be covered 
with wild flowers in the spring of the year, and 
even in the autumn many pretty things of this 
kind were in bloom. Platycodon grandijionis 
several species of Veronica, Potentilla, Pardanthus, 
&c., were in bloom at the time of my visit. 
As there was little to detain me at Yentae, I 
determined to go onwards to the mouth of the 
Pei-ho by the first opportunity. The French com- 
modore on the station was good enough to give 
me a passage in a steamer named the ‘ Fee-loong,’ 
which was under charter to convey the mails from 
Shanghae to Taku once in each month, the other 
bi-monthly mail being taken by an English vessel. 
We left our anchorage on the afternoon of the 1st 
of September, and on the following morning we 
were nearing the far-famed Taku forts and the 
mouth of the Pei-ho, the scene of our disasters and 
subsequent triumphs a short time before. The 
view on approaching the mouth of this river has 
often been described by writers on China from 
Lord Macartney’s embassy downwards, and there- 
fore I need say nothing about it here further than 
it was the most unprepossessing one which it had 
ever been my lot to look upon. As the ‘ Fee-loong ’ 
was a small vessel and drew little water, we were 
not obliged to lie outside the bar as ships generally 
x 2 
