as occafion might require. The canal, which at the commencement
was from fixty to one hundred feet in width,! was con-
trailed at fuch places by the {tone piers o f the flood-gates to
abouf thirty feet.
Towards the evening o f the 23d, as we approached the city
Ifing-tcbang-foo, we were much amufed with a military manoeuvre,
which was evidently intended to aftoniih us. Under
the walls o f this city about three hundred foldiers were drawn
out in a line, which, however, the darknefs o f the night had
rendered invifible. But juft as we were coming to anchor,
each foldier, at the found o f the gong, produced from under his
cloak a fplendid lantern with which he went through a regular
manual exercife. The following morning we'obferved, for
the firft time, a few hillocks breaking the line o f the horizon
to the eaftward. The country appeared to be in a tolerable
ftate o f cultivation ; but the mode o f tillage exhibited no extraordinary
degree o f ikill o r o f labour. Villages o f confiderable
extent were eredled along, the banks o f the canal, at intervals
o f about three miles from each other ; and, in the gardens
contiguous to thefe, grew in abundance the tobacco
plant whofe leaves were fmall, hairy, and vifcous, and the
flowers o f which were o f a greenifh yellow palling into a faint
rofe colour at the edges o f the petals. We obferved alfo fmall
patches o f hemp. A greater ufe is made o f the feeds and leaflets
o f this plant, as a fubftitute for or to mix with tobacco, than
o f its fibres for cloth, a purpofe to which it is as rarely converted
by the Ghinefe as by the Hindoos, being little efteemed
for thofe valuable ufes to which, fince its introduction into Euro
p e ,
rope, it has been applied. The number o f lateral branches,
whicfi in a warm climate each Hem throws out clofe above the
furface o f the ground, breaks the length o f fibre and renders it
unfit for thofe purpofes for which, in the northern regions o f
Europe, its tall-' branchlefs item is fo well adapted. The fow
thiftle, a plant that occurs in almoil every part o f the world,
was nothing different here from its ufual habit in Europe. We
obferved alio a fpecies o f Chenopodium and of Artemefia or wormwood
; abundance o f the Pe-tfai, and other common culinary
vegetables. In the fmall flower gardens, without which we
fcarcely obferved a fingle cottage, were balfams, feveral kinds
o f beautiful alters, holy-hocks, two fpecies o f M alva, an Ama-
rant bus, and the fhowy and handfome ihrub the Nerium Oleander.
Having palfed on the 26th Odober the walls o f the city
Tjie-ning, where a multitude o f fmall craft were lying at anchor,'
we came to an extenfive lake o f the fame name, navigated by
a great number o f failing boats. From the ealt fide o f this lake
the canal was feparated only by an immenfe mound-of earth.
T o the weliward the whole country, beyond the reach o f fight,
was one continued fwamp,or morafs, upon which were inter-
fperfed pools or ponds o f water abounding with the nelum-
bium, at this time in full flower. The morafs being feveral
feet below the furface o f the water in the canal afforded the1
means o f regulating the quantity ; and, accordingly, at certain
diftances, we obferved ftone arches turned in the earthen embankment
to let off the fuperfluous water that might be occa-
fioned by the fwelling o f the feeding rivers. About this place-
3 1 alfo,