given themfelves all poffible trouble to render it more acceptable,
by endeavouring to ferve it up, as they thought, in the
Englilh ftyle. In fome o f thofe feafts we had hogs roafted
whole, that could not have weighed lefs than fifty pounds';
quarters o f mutton, geefe, ducks, and fowls roafted or boiled
whole, a mode o f cookery altogether different to the pradice
o f the country, which is chiefly confined to that o f ftewing
fmall morfels o f meat with greens or rice. The awkward
manner in which they were prepared, being generally burnt
and glazed over with oil, was entitled to and found an ample
excufe in the defire thus teftified o f pleafing.
From the time that we firft embarked in Auguft at the mouth
o f the Pey-ho, or White River, until our return, we experienced
only a fingle ihower o f rain. It is obferved, indeed,
that during the autumnal months the northern provinces enjo
y a cloudlefs ik y ; an advantage o f which they avail themfelves
in thraihing out the different kinds of grain in the field, thus faving
the labour o f bearing it into barns or piling it into ftacks. It is
either thrafhed out on clay floors with flails, fimilar to our own,
beat out o f the ear againft the edge o f a plank, or trodden by
oxen or buffalos. The grain that we had noticed juft ftriking
into the ear, on afcending the river, was now generally reaped.
It confifted principally o f the different fpecies o f millet, as before
obferved, and a fmall proportion o f the palygonumfagopyrum
or buck-wheat. A fpecies o f dolichos or bean, that had been
fown between the drills o f the Holcus, or tall millet, was now
in flower.
The range o f Fahrenheit’s thermometer in the province
o f Pe-tche-lee, during the month o f Auguft, was from 80° to
88" in the middle o f the day, and during the night it remained
generally about 6o° to 64a. In September, the medium temperature
at two o’ clock was about 76“ ; and in O&ober about
63 but in the latter month, it decreafed in the night fome-
times to 44".
In the neighbourhood o f the Pei-ho a light fandy foil chiefly
prevails, with a mixture o f argillaceous earth and flimy matter,
interfperfed with ihining particles o f mica : but not a ftone o f
any magnitude, nor pebbles, nor even gravel occur in the
whole extent o f country through which this river is navigable.
The furface, indeed, is fo flat and uniform, that the tide,
which rifes only nine or ten feet in the gulph o f Ps-tche-kei,
flows to the diftance o f thirty miles beyond Pien-fing, or one
hundred and ten miles from the mouth o f the river; and it frequently
fubmerges the whole country, notwithftanding the
great pains bellowed by the inhabitants in raifing and keeping
in order artificial banks. Such inundations, although- frequently
the caufes o f great fertility, are fometimes produdive
o f general calamity, efpecially i f they happen at a feafon when
the crop is too far advanced. Thefe plains exhibit the appearance
o f a more than ordinary irtcroachment o f the land upon
the fea. The general level o f the face o f the country, at high
water, is not more elevated than two feet above the furface o f
the river, o f which not only the bed, but alfo the -fubftratum
o f the enclofing banks, are compofed entirely o f fine fand fimilar
to that on the fhore o f the -fea. The deepeft part o f the
3 r 2 wide