lined each of them with lead, and thus forwarded to the open ports for sale. Most of the Bohea teas are brought down to Foochow by the river Min — a voyage, as we shall presently see, requiring no ordinary nerve and skill. The cargoes, as a rule, begin to arrive at about the end of April; but at the time I speak the market, for two or three seasons past, had not been opened till some time in June. The year before the mandarins gave native dealers credit for the duties on the leaf, and thus aided them to hold back their teas until scarcity should force the market into rates highly favourable to China. The Europeans do not seem to succeed in banding together, like the Chinese, to secure the tea crop on profitable terms. The probable advantage to be gained by being first in the market presents a temptation too great for the impetuous foreign merchant to resist. But although the Chinese sellers enjoy many facilities, such as borrowing money from the Foreign banks in Foochow against the " chops " which they hold, they have to pay high rates of interest, and the up-country competition among themselves too, is strong ; so that they are not unfamiliar with losses — and heavy ones too sometimes.
But now let us proceed up country and gather some notion of the difficulties which beset the transit of this precious herb. I made an excursion for 200 miles up the Min, as far as Yen-ping city, in the company of Mr. Justice Doolittle, whose valuable book on the "Social Life of the Chinese" is the result of years of painstaking labour and careful observation among the people of this district. Armed with the requisite passports, we started for Shui-kow, at mid-day on December 2, in a yacht kindly placed at my disposal by one of the English merchants at Foochow.
Boating on a Chinese river and with a Chinese crew is
