The two great products of this part o f the country are rice
and filk; the former o f w hich, at this time, they were bufily
employed in reaping. Plantations o f the mulberry tree were
extended on both fides o f the canal and into the country beyond
the reach o f fight. They appeared to be o f two diftind
fpecies; the one, the common mulberry, morus nigra, and the
other having much fmaller leaves, fmooth and heart-lhajsed,
and bearing a white berry about the fize o f the field ftrawberry.
The latter had more the habit o f a ihrub, but the branches o f
neither were fuffered to run into ftrong wood, being frequently
pruned in order that the trunk might annually throw out
voung fcions, whofe leaves were confidered to be more tender
than fuch as grew from old branches. Another reafon was alfo
affigned for this operation. A tree, when left to itfelf, throws:
put the greateft part of its leaves at once, in the fpring o f the
year, but i f the thick wood be cut out from time to time, new,
leaves will continue to puih below the parts fo cut off during
the whole feafon ; and, accordingly, the Chinefe are particularly
attentive to prune afrelh in the autumn, in order to obtain a
fiipply o f young leaves in the after-fpring. T he thermometer
at this place, on the 9th o f November at fun-rife, ftood at 64°,
and at noon in the ihade at 70° degrees.
It was in this part o f the canal where the bridge o f ninety-
one arches, mentioned in the fixth chapter, was thrown acrofs the
arm o f a lake that joined the canal. I lament exceedingly that
we paffed this extraordinary fabric in the night. It happened to
catch the attention of a Swifs fervant who, as the yacht glided
along, began to count the arches, but finding them increafe in
number
number much beyond his expectation and, at the fame time,
in dimenfions, he ran into the cabin calling out with great
eagernefs, “ For God’s fake, gentlemen, come upon deck, for
“ here is a .bridge fuch as I never faw before ; it has no
I end.” Mr. Maxwell and I haftened upon deck and, by the
faint light, could fufficiently diftinguilh the arches o f a bridge
running parallel with the eaftern bank o f the canal, acrofs the
arm o f a vafi: lake, with which the navigation thus communicated.
From the higheft point, or what appeared to us to be
the central arch, I counted forty-five to the en d ; here they
were very fmall, but the central arch I gueifed to be about thirty
feet high and forty w id e ; and the whole length o f the bridge
I calculated to be about half a mile. The conftruCtion o f filch
a bridge, in fuch a fituation, could obviouily have been employed
for no other purpofe than that o f opening a free communication
with-the lake ; and, at the fame time, o f avoiding the
labour and expence of accumulating materials fufficient for making
a folid embankment.
After failing a great part o f the day through a foreft o f mulberry
trees, planted with much regularity, we arrived on the
10th at the city o f Hang-tchoo-foa, the capital o f the province
o f ‘Tche-kiang. Here that branch o f the grand canal which communicates
with the Tang-tfe-kiang terminates in a large commodious
bafon, at this time crowded with ihipping. From this
bafon a number o f fmaller canals, paffing through arches
turned in the walls and interfe&ing the city in every dire&ion,
are finally united in a lake beyond the weftern Wall -called the
See-bov.. The natural and artificial beauties o f this lake far
3 x exceeded