Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/106

 102 Ling-Nam.

from these quarries, notably the two great lions that stand on either side of the entrance to the Tartar general’s Yamen. The record states that in the produc- tion and transportation of these images thirty-six men lost. their lives.

Ascending the Loh-ting River, one of the branches of the West River whieh flows in from the south, two days’ journey above Shiu-hing, we come into the region of the cassia plant. ‘Lhe fragrant bark, which forms one of the main sources of revenue to the Kwong-si province, and is shipped in such quantities from Canton, had not been studied in its natural state until three years ago, when Mr, Ford, of the Botanical Gardens in Hong-kong, visited this section of the country and saw it grow. His investigations confirmed the opinion of many botanists, that the cassia of commerce is the bark of the Cinnamomuwm Cassia, and not of the Laurus Cinnamomum, as some had supposed. Anxious to secure a supply of living plants, Mr. Ford tried to get them from the Chinese, but found them so suspicious lest their industry should suffer, that they would part with but few. He outwitted them, however, by sending his Chinese agent ahead to buy up all the young plants in the nurseries at points further inland, before they knew they were for a foreigner. The plants so secured have been sent to Ceylon, Mauritius, Jamaica, and else- where for cultivation.

Opposite the city of Shiu-hing flows the San-hing River, one of the smaller streams of the province. It comes from the south-west, one hundred and twenty miles, through a country of many attractions, Midway