Chap. XX. 
IMPERIAL GRANARIES. 
various kinds of Cabbages, Onions, Carrots, Turnips, 
French Beans, Capsicums, G-inger, and common 
and sweet Potatoes. Amongst these, the Gourds 
and the Egg-apples, or Brinjals, grew to a very- 
large size, — some of the latter measuring eighteen 
inches in circumference ! The Sunflower was 
also a giant here, and attained a height of fourteen 
feet. 
The greater part of the rice used in these dis- 
tricts is brought up in junks from the south. Large 
Imperial granaries have been built in different 
parts of the country, where the rice is laid up in 
store. I visited one of these at a place named 
Pae-tsang, situated on the left hank of the Pei-ho, 
some six miles from Tien-tsin. It consisted of six- 
teen large buildings or barns, each fifty feet wide, 
three hundred feet in length, and about forty or 
fifty feet high. At the upper end I observed a 
small temple, which contained a figure of Tsang- 
shin, the god who is supposed to protect the 
granaries. At the time of my visit the barns were 
all empty, and their doors were nailed up. In 
these troubled times the grain-junks could not pass 
through the country. At Peking I afterwards saw 
a number of Imperial granaries built upon the 
same plan, and presenting the same appearance. 
It has been already observed that there are few 
trees in the Tien-tsin plain. Fuel from this 
source is therefore almost unknown ; but bountiful 
nature here steps in and supplies the want from 
another source. The tall stout stems of the millet, 
i 
