p. XXIII. JOURNEY TO THE MOUNTAINS. 
373* 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
I donkeys — 
journey to the mountains — Long trains of camels an 
Pagoda at Pale-twang — Large cemetery — Curioi 
Agricultural productions — Country people — Reach the foot of the 
hills — Temples of Pata-tshoo — Foreign writing on a wall — A 
noble oak-tree discovered — Ascend to the top of the mountains 
— Fine views — Visit from mandarins — Early morning view — 
Return to Peking — Descend the Pei-ho — Sail for Shanghae — 
Arrange and ship my collections — Arri 
One of the principal objects I had in view in 
coming thus far north was to get a peep at the 
capital of China. Another inducement, and 
perhaps a greater one, was the hope of being able 
to add some new plants of an ornamental kind to 
my former collections. And considering the cold 
winters which are experienced in this part of the 
world, anything of that kind would have been 
almost certain to prove hardy in our English 
climate. As the nursery-gardens I had visited 
both at Tien-tsin and Peking were filled with 
well-known southern species, and as the plain 
through which I had passed was nearly all under 
cultivation and contained few trees, I was anxious 
to visit the mountains which bound this plain on 
the north and west, where I hoped to find some- 
thing new to reward me for my long journey. 
