192 
TIMBER RAFTS, 
niana , a specimen of which I have recovered through Sir George 
Staunton, and have examined others in the Herbarium of Sir Joseph 
Banks, brought over by Lord Macartney from the province of Kiang- 
nan. This tree, it would appear, is one of the most widely diffused 
plants on the continent of China. We met with it through more 
than ten degrees of north latitude and six of east longitude. 
The rafts are very singular objects in the eyes of a stranger, con- 
sisting of an indefinite number of smaller rafts, fastened together 
and covered with the dwellings of their managers. The smaller rafts 
are usually ten feet wide, and five above the surface of the water. 
They are joined together by twisted osiers, and thus extend, as 
affirmed by Du Halde and other writers, to more than a mile in 
length, and are numerous in proportion as the timber-merchant is 
rich, and are so connected that they move as easily as the links of a 
chain. Four or five men guide them before with poles and oars, and 
others assist along the sides, at equal distances. They live in wooden 
houses, and sell their dwellings at the different cities where they 
sell the timber ; but sometimes, it is said, they navigate a hundred 
leagues in transporting it to Pekin. 
When the boats anchored in the evening, I again examined the 
rocks in our neighbourhood, and found them composed of red sand- 
stone of a finer grain than those I have before described. One of 
them was remarkable for a vein of pudding stone, composed of quartz, 
pebbles, and the shift which is represented in the sketch. 
