108
Topography of Ckchiúng
FER.
they saw hazel-nuts among the shrubbery, but it is more than proba- ble that they were mistaken. A few bad grapes were sometimes brought to us; but the party who went from hence to Chusan niet with abundance of this fruit, and of very good quality, growing upon standards erected in the several canals, and forming a shade, under which the barges could pass. Among the most conspicuous of the shrubs, on the borders of the lake was the Hibiscus inutabilis, the Hibiscus Syriacus, the Syringa vulgaris or common lilac, and the paper mulberry; we observed also a species of Mimosa, a Crotularia, Cratægus, Rosa, Rhamnus, Sambucus, juniper, and the cotton plant. Of flowers, we particularly noticed a large purple-colored double poppy, which, with the Nelumbiuin that grew here in all the ponds, and a species of Pæonia, appear most frequently on the large sheets of paper used for covering the walls of their apartments. A great variety of balsams were also in flower, a species of Amaranthus, a Xeranthemum, and Gnaphalium. I mention only such plants as caught the eye in passing for our Chinese companions, who had a much better appetite for the eels of the lake, and other good things they had taken care to provide, than for botany, had no notion of being detained by a bush or a flower." Barrow, page 355.
Staunton says,
it is a beautiful sheet of water, about three or four miles in diameter, perfectly pellucid, full of fish, in most places shal- low, with a gravelly bottom. A great number of light and fanciful stone bridges are thrown across the arms of the lake, as it runs up into the deep glens, to meet the rills which ooze from the sides of the mountain, on the summit of which were erected inany temples and pagodas, one of which attracted particular attention. It was situated ou the verge of a bold peninsula that juts into the lake, and was call- ed the temple of the Thundering Winds. The style of architecture, he adds, "is different from that generally used throughout the coun- try. Four stories were yet standing, but the top was in ruins. Something like a regular order was yet discernable in the mouldering cornices, that projected in a kind of double curve. Grass, shrubs, and mosses were growing upon them. The arches and mouldings were of red, the upright walls of yellow, stone. Its present height does not exceed one hundred and twenty feet." There were, within the woods, on the brow of the hills, and in the vallies, several thou- sand tombs, generally built in the form of small houses, about six or eight feet high, mostly painted blue, and fronted with white pillars, as already described by Barrow. The tombs of persons of high rank were situated apart, on the slope of hills or terraces of a semicircular