Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/139

 Along the North River. 135

Stones,” which are said to have come from Kwai-lam, a city two or three hundred miles distant, in the next province, in a thunderstorm. When the people saw them coming they exclaimed, “Ha! Can stones

lea, Shiu-kwan, and the district surrounding, besides being favoured by natural beauties of great attractiveness, is, also a productive region. Among the products of the land are rice of a high grade, barley, several kinds of wheat, beans, peas, and hempseed. Several varieties of maize, described as dog-tail maize, dog-claw snaize, and duck-claw maize, beside the ordinary Indian corn, are fonnd. Taro, sweet potatoes, which the chronicle of the district says came from Spain, a kind of hill potatoes, sometimes called “ bamboo” potatoes (probably yams), and cotton called kat-pui, also said to have come from Spain, are cultivated. Hemp cloth is made, also sackcloth, and a peculiar kind of banana cloth woven from the fibres of banana leaves and stalks. They make four kinds of wine or whisky, and, in essenti al oils, produce tea oil, pepper oil, pea-nut oil, salad oil, and wood oil from the seeds of the Alewrites vemicia. Cane- sugar, barley-sugar, and honey are made, and four varieties of tea grown. Among the metals gold is found in smal] quantities in Ying-tak district; silver in several places, also copper, zinc, iron, and lead; quartz, lime, sulphur, glass material, sulphate of copper, sulphate of iron, alum, and a very fine quality of clay for pottery called Kuk-nai, literally “yeast” clay. Coal in abun- dance is found, and mined to a limited extent. Among the vegetables they have seventeen kinds of