THE OAK SILKWORM OF CHINA. 169 
Should it be found to possess some such peculiar quality so useful as 
to make it specially marketable, then it will become a matter of interest 
to ascertain whether a cocoon-forming worm which exists in a wild state 
in British North America— near the Canadian lakes I think, — is not the. 
same animal as the New-chwang " mountain " worm. The climate of 
the two regions is essentially the same, and if the cultivation should 
seem desirable in Canada, the difficulty of want of experience as well as 
want of sufficient labourers might be got over by introducing Chinese 
emigrants from the New-chwang silk-districts. Be that as it may, the 
produce of the mountain worm spun into thread or as cocoons should, 
if the provincial authorities are not allowed to interpose barriers to 
foreign adventure, prove a fairly remunerative export from this port 
town, and that for the reason that it has for generations back paid 
Chinese dealers to send it seaward in junks. 
The silk region of the New-chwang Consular district may be de- 
scribed as the valleys of the Yang, and other small rivers which empty 
themselves into the head or northern extremity of the Yellow Sea ; but 
the region extends as far north as the parallel of Moukden ; the hilly 
country lying due east from that city, and which is drained by the 
affluent of the Leaou river which passes it, also producing silk. No 
other part of the Leaou valley produces silk, nor is any, so far as I can 
learn, produced in the hills which lie between it and the great wall. 
The silk region, as I have denned its limits, is about 100 miles broad 
from east to west, and about 150 miles long from north to south. Its 
southerly position, that nearest to the Yellow Sea, is probably the most 
suited for the cultivation, and it is from that that the accompanying 
cocoons, with the twigs and leaves of the bush the grub feeds on, have 
been procured. The pieces of stuff that accompany them were woven 
in the same region, whether with or without admixture of cotton, which 
is also produced in that quarter, I cannot tell. 
I have traversed the silk region twice. A water-shed, composed of 
the mountains that comes down from the north-east of Moukden and 
stretch away to the Meaou-taou Straits, forming the Leaou Peninsula ; 
this water-shed intervenes between the silk region and this port town. 
But there are certainly two, if there be not more, roads practicable for 
the heavy goods' carts used in this province. Heavy articles of small 
value, as pulse, bean-cakes and oil, could not with profit be brought 
over these mountains to this port. On the other hand, a considerable 
portion of the foreign cotton-manufactured goods, whieh supply the 
fairs held near the Corean frontier, are taken in carts over these moun- 
tains from this port, showing that, in articles of no greater value in 
proportion to their weight than cottons, this foreign-shipping port can 
compete favourably with the junk ports at the head of the China Sea, 
the longer land carriage being counter-balanced by the cheaper freights, 
and quicker passages of foreign ships, with the power of insuring goods 
conveyed by them. Therefore, the cocoons have been sent southward 
vol. vi. p 
