A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT
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of the mountains, in order to procure a more luxuriant herbage, and these conflagrations seen at night have a very picturesque effect.
The height of the Mountains is not very considerable, but some of them reach to between 4,000 and 5,000 feet.
The Islands usually consist of mountains and rocks; the Chinese therefore very seldom use the expression “island” — Hoi-taou, but call them "mountains" — Shan, as Lin-tin-shan 零丁山.
There are only three Plains of any extent in the district. The most important lies in the N. W. part of the district, and is well watered and covered with villages; it is under the government of the Mandarin of Fuk-wing, who, by-the-by, though he is supposed to rule over 200 villages, confided to me, in a conversation that I had with him, that he had nothing to do but to eat, to drink, and to smoke.
The important towns of San-keaou, Wong-kong, Cap-sui-hou✯, and Sha-tsing #, are situated in this plain, and it might be named the San-keaou plain, San-keaou being the largest and most influential of its towns. The inhabitants of the plain are industriously occupied in the pursuits of agriculture and trade; and in the more populous and richer towns, is found the highest degree of cultivation and learning which the Sanon district affords.
The north-west angle of the plain lies very low, and is covered with rushes, some parts of it only being under cultivation, and in these only a certain kind of rice will flourish. The second plain extends from Si-heong to Deep Bay, and is continued on the southern side of that bay, there forming a triangular perfectly-even plain, the sides of which measure about five miles. The third plain occupies the eastern part of the district, near the city of Ti-pung, and is not personally known to me; even these plains have ridges of hills running through them.
Amongst the principal mountains, that of 'Ng-tung † ♫ is said by the Chinese to be the highest and the most powerful; all remarkable mountains are supposed by the Chinese to have some spiritual influence over the affairs of mortals. It lies in the eastern part of the district near Mirs Bay, and is probably about