Page:Ningpo to Shanghai.djvu/44

30 place is about a mile and a third N. W.&mdash;West again, distant four miles, is the San-moong-ling to reach which, the road, very narrow, skirts the sides of mountains of frightful acclivity, studded from bottom to top with some of the loftiest bamboo trees in the world, here and there, on western sides, over patches of tea trees. It is hardly safe to attempt riding in a chair in this quarter; but in no part of the world can the beauty of the scenery which the traveller passes, until he reaches the hamlet of Shih-chong, be exceeded;the streams in the glens below being of considerable width, winding principally from the N. W. and running, angrily, to the southward, as though they hastened to become the fathers of useful rivers.

Shih-chong numbers some 60 families, all of them engaged in the manufacture of a coarse quality bamboo paper. The bamboos used for this purpose are usually two years old. Split and cut into three foot lengths, they are placed in vats, in some cases covered with lime, and left to soak in water until almost rotten. Some of these bamboo cut tings remain in vat for eight and nine months before using. This, however, is a long period, and one and two months are enough to render the pith of the bamboo fit for the water-power-worked pounding hammer. The process of manufacturing the paper is similar to that in the west. The pulp is thrown into vats which are fed with water through shoots leading from the hill streams, the pulp being taken up on fine bamboo screens. One pair of hands is able to throw off as many as 300 sheets an hour; a pile of 3 feet high, of sheets 2 by 1 foot square, being a fair day's work. The machine for expressing the water from the pile is clumsy enough, but effectual in reducing 