Chekiang is noted for its varied and picturesque beauty, and Wenchow, the city of pagodas, kittysols and oranges, may be taken as a favourable example. The entrance to it—the city being some twenty miles from the mouth of the river Ou—is grand in the extreme. Mountain and valley, river and sea, islet and cliff, unite in forming a picture that to our eyes, fresh from the unvarying plains of Kiangsu, was most charming. We dropped anchor between the city and a fairylike island, famous alike for its beauty and historical associations. Afterwards we found that viewed from the top of a distant peak it resembled in shape a river steamer, and needed but smoke from the twin pagodas to make the illusion complete, Wenchow is unusually clean for a Chinese city, and one may walk through the streets without meeting much that is offend sive to the sight or smell; there are several canalswhichappearto be effectivees a system of drainage. A pleasant and interesting walk isto be had by going round the city walls which can be done comfortably in a couple of hours. They extend over several small hills and at the summit of each there is a Ting'rh or rest-house, affording a good view of the city and surrounding country, One in particular is used as a look-out for vessels coming up the river and is a great resort of the foreign residents, as from this point is first sighted the steamer from Shanghai, the advent of which is an event that causes no little excitement. Here and there rusty old cannon lie dismounted, and ferns of many varieties flourish luxuriantly.
The foreign residents live for the most part in rooms in the native temples, which after a th +h cleaning and some little Europeanisingaremade comfortable enough.
ip regularly goes on in the adjoining rooms. It is whispered that the only billiers table in the place is under the guardianship of a venerable old "joss" bricked up in the wall!
The lower reaches of the river abound in er fow! amongst which we spent some time and cartridges before making a more extensive trip up the river.
Houseboats as they exist at Shanghai are unknown in Wenchow, but a very passable substitute is found in a native boat about 35 by 10 feet and drawing lit inches of water. These easily accommodate four foreigners with servants and boatmen, and being of such light draught, are admirably adapted for the numerous shallows and rapids in the upper reaches of the river.
wing the city with the commencement of the flood tide on a January morn ing, we were accompanied by a large number of other boats, great and small, all bound. up-river for wood. They kept us company for several hours, and by frightening away the waterfowl, prevented us from getting as much shooting as we otherwise might have done. After several miles the river contracted into a narrow pass with high hills on either side rising up from the water's edge, and covered with trees and shrubs. This was the general character of the river valley as far as our journey extended. Towards evening we arrived at a large village called Wen-chi which is about 90 li from Wenchow, and as we were mow above the tide the water became Deautifully clear, and sand and pebbles replaced mud and reeds, Another few li
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.