tains. This soil he describes as being moderately rich, of a reddish color, and well mixed with débris of rocks. It was kept moist by the water constantly oozing from the sides of the rocks, and was well drained-on the mountains in consequence of its height, and on the plains by reason of its slight elevation above the water-courses. In the month of June the temperature at Wu-i Shan ranged from 85° to 95° Fahr., and in July it rose to 100°, beyond which it rarely rises. In winter the maximum shown by the thermometer was 78°, and the minimum 44°.

Mr. Fortune informs us that black and green tea are both really made from the same variety of plants, the difference in the appearance of these teas (when the green teas are not artificially colored) depending entirely upon manipulation. It would appear that age, as in the mulberry plant, injures the quality of the produce. In the black-tea districts, as well as in the green, great quantities of young plants are annually raised from seeds. These seeds are gathered in October, and kept mixed up with sand and earth during the winter months. In spring they are sown thickly in a corner of the farm, from which they are afterward transplanted. When a year old they are about ten inches high, and are ready for transplanting. They are then planted in rows about four feet apart; five or six plants are placed in each hole, and the holes are about four feet from each other in the rows. A plantation of tea at a distance looks like a shrubbery of evergreens. The plantations are suffered to grow unmolested for three years, when they are well established and produce strong and vigorous .shoots.

The tea farms at Wu-i Shan were small in extent, no single farm producing more than a chop of six hundred chests. A chop, or lot, is made up as follows: A tea merchant from one of the larger towns in the interior sends his agents to all the small towns, villages and temples in the district to purchase teas from the Buddhist priests, who are large growers, and from small farmers. All the teas so purchased are taken to the merchant's house, where they are mixed together, care being taken to keep the different grades apart as much as possible. By such a method a chop of six hundred and twenty or six hundred and thirty chests is made, and all the tea of this chop is of the same general description.

The process of manufacture is briefly this: In the northern provinces the leaves from which green tea is to be made being gathered are brought from the plantations and spread thinly out on small bamboo trays, in order to get rid of their moisture. In two hours the leaves are dry; they are then thrown into roasting-pans and rapidly moved about and shaken up. Affected by the heat, they make a crackling noise, become moist and flaccid, and yield a considerable portion of vapor. In this state they remain five minutes, when they are drawn quickly out and placed upon the rolling-table. Men take their stations at the rolling-table and divide the leaves among them. Each takes as many as he can press with his hands and makes them up in the form of a ball. The ball is rolled upon the table and greatly compressed to force out the last remaining moisture and to give the leaves the necessary twist. The leaves are then shaken out upon flat trays, and are carried once more to the roasting-pan, where they are kept in rapid motion by

the hands of the workmen. In an hour and a half the leaves are well dried and their color is fixed. So ends the first process. The next one consists in winnowing and passing the tea through sieves of various sizes, in order to get rid of impurities and to divide the tea into the kinds designated by the names which we commonly apply to them. During this process the tea is refinedthe coarse kinds once, and the finer sorts twice or thrice. Such is the manufacture of the most grateful of our beverages. Black tea, in the Wu-i mountains and elsewhere in the southern provinces, undergoes similar treatment, but the method of manipulation, as before indicated, is not the same; the difference, according to Mr. Fortune, being sufficient to account for some of the effects experienced by the foreign drinker who swallows green tea only.

The tea, being manufactured, is secured in the house of the merchant, resident in one of the larger towns, whence it is conveyed to the sea-coast, there to be delivered to foreign purchasers. The merchant who intends his tea for the Canton market engages a number of coolies to carry the chests northward across the Bohea mountains to Ho-kau. If the teas are of the common kind, each coolie carries two chests slung over his shoulder on a bamboo pole, one being suspended at each end. These chests are often much knocked about during the journey over the steep and rugged mountains, and the carrier is allowed to rest them on the ground, which is often wet and dirty. The finest teas must, however, never touch the soil during the whole journey, and they are accordingly carried in single chests across the coolie's shoulder. In six days the