Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/202

 198 Ling-Nam.

and beautiful trees. These hills divide the plain of Shek- kok from that of Yung-shi, which centres. about the little market town of the same name. In this plain are about twenty villages, most of them large and well built, surrounded by substantial walls. A creek flows in from the north-west, called Talung-shui, coming out froma a narrow gorge in the hills, and pouring in the springtime a wild aud turbulent stream into the rich plain below. Ten miles up this creek is a large settlement of Ius, who, under Chinese direction, prepare, and bring out for sale, large quantities of charcoal. On the hills along this creek grows a species of wild crab-apple, with a quince- like flavour, and a variety of small pears.

The market of Yung-shii is. very srriall; a number of the Iu people always attend. I saw a fine young spotted deer brought in from the hills, and offered for sale. It had been entrapped, and only suffered a slight injury to one of its antlers. At one village is a small but flourish- ing plantation of the trees on which the wax-insects feed, and from which they collect the insects twice a year for the manufacture of wax. In front of another village, the largest in the plain, is a wonderful spring, surrounded by immense trees, enclosed by stone walls ten feet square, and furnishing an exhaustless supply of the purest water to the people.

As we proceed up the river the hills become of a black, hard, barren rock, and the trees less plentiful; villages are numerous, and the groves behind them present a peculiar appearance, with stacks of straw built around the trees at a distance of six or eight feet from the ground. It is a universal custom in these upper districts,