YANG-TSE-KIANG. 
171 
and ducks occurred in large flocks on the river and lake, and were so 
tame that they could be approached within a few yards. A wood- 
cock was pursued by a gentleman at Qua-chow. Both the Yang-tse- 
kiang and Po-yang-ho are profusely productive in excellent fish. 
Carp and mullet abounded in the markets of all the towns visited on 
their banks by the Embassy. A few porpoises were observed in the 
river, and were called river-pigs by the Chinese. 
The scenery of the Yang-tse-kiang and Po-yang-ho combined that 
of every river and lake enclosed in a mountainous and verdant coun- 
try, and a peculiarity arising from numerous islands, often rising 
abruptly two or three hundred feet above their surface, covered 
with the grotesque buildings of the Chinese, surrounded by groves 
of bamboo and pine. They, for the most part, exhibited the same 
characters as the Kin-shan, or Golden Hill, and like it verify the 
accuracy of many Chinese landscapes. 
The Pinus Massoniana, and several species of oak, mingled occa- 
sionally with the tallow and camphor trees, were the chief orna- 
ments of the shores of that part of the Yang-tse-kiang and Po-yang 
lake gone over by the Embassy. The Pine was often in considerable 
groves, and appeared to grow at a great elevation. 
A bluish grey compact lime-stone was found amongst the debris 
of the shores of the Yang-tse-kiang, and in quarries in the neigh- 
bourhood of Nankin. The islands which were examined consisted of 
an agglomerate, composed of round and angular fragments of quartz, 
of lime-stone, and of felspar porphyry, either united by a very thin 
argillaceous cement, or imbedded in sand-stone. The banks of the 
river sometimes presented a similar formation. The Leu-shan 
mountains, near the junction of the Yang-tse-kiang with the Po-yang 
lake, were composed of small-grained granite, containing milk- 
white felspar, smoke grey quartz, and greyish black mica ; and of a 
micaceous schistus with scarcely any quartz. Very large perfect crys- 
tals of felspar were also brought to me from the same place : many 
of them were three or four inches in their largest diameter, and 
z 2 
