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INHABITANTS OF THE LOWER YANG-TZE BASIN. 219
region, except perhaps in Japan, is there found such a surprising variety of
plants remarkable at once for their exquisite foliage, brilliant blossom, and sweet
perfume.
On the other hand, all the large wild animals have disappeared with the forests
which sheltered them. The wild boar alone has again increased in number since the
country has been wasted by the Taiping rebels and the Imperial troops.
In some
reedy islets of the Yang-tze a small species of deer (Hydropotex\ is met bearing a
remarkable resemblance to the musk deer, although separated from that animal by
vast intervening spaces, and found nowhere else in China. The only domestic
mammals raised in the country are the ox, buffalo, and pig. The heron is held in
great veneration by the peasantry, und large
seen, especially in the thickets surrounding the pagodas.
communities of these birds are often
INHABITANTS OF THE LOWER YANG-TZE BASIN.
The Nan-shan is a highly favoured agricultural region. From the Lower
Yang-tze provinces China draws most of its exports, and the chief tea plantations
are found in the eastern districts of this basin. The tract stretching for some 360
miles from the banks of the Chang to the alluvial lands about the Yang-tze estuary,
and including the southern slopes of the Fokien highlands, is pre-eminently the home
of the tea plant. It is generally cultivated on the slopes with a southern aspect,
not in continuous plantations, but either in small plots, or else in the hedges between
the fields, and on the embankments between the rice grounds. The Yang-tze-kiang
varieties are used especially in the preparation of the green teas. Sericulture is
also widely developed in the Nan-shan and Lower Yang-tze regions, which take the
first, or almost the first, rank not only for tea and silk, but also for rice and other
cereals, as well as sugar, tobacco, hemp, oleaginous plants, and fruits of all kinds.
The sweet potato is cultivated to the very top of the hills, and in the Nan-shan
country cotton alone is not produced in sufficient quantity for the local demand.
But the deficiency both in the raw material and in woven is goods amply supplied
from the provinces of Chekiang, Nganhwei, and Hupeh.
The industrious character of the people Is revealed in the allies . they have
procured for themselves in the animal kingdom. Like the English in mediaeval
times, they have domesticated the cormorant, turning
to account its skill at
fishing. Being furnished with an iron collar, to prevent them from swallowing
the prey, these birds are trained to dart from the junks to the bottom of the river,
returning each time with a fish in their bill. After the day's labour they roost in
regular rows along both sides of the boat, thus maintaining its equilibrium.
Elsewhere otters are employed in the same way, and pisciculture, a recent inven-
tion in Europe, has boon practised for centuries in China. Dealers in the fry
traverse every part of Kiungsi, supplying the tanks, where the fish are reared and
rapidly fattened for the market. Some of the processes of this remarkable industry
are still unknown in the West.
Such pursuits could only have arisen in the midst of teeming populations, and