point below us.

That evening we left the main river and tracked up a tributary stream
until we came to a broad canal, which Akong informed us led direct to
our destination.

[Illustration: SORTING THE TEA.]

Turning out of our beds the next morning we found the boat moored to
the bank of the canal, opposite a long, rambling, one-storied building,
which proved to be the "hong" of the tea-merchant to whom the
neighboring plantations belonged. We were really in the tea country at
last. On every side of us, as far as the eye could reach, the
dark-green tea-plants were growing in their beds of reddish sandy soil.
Notwithstanding the cook's urgent appeals to wait until chow-chow was
ready, we jumped ashore and into the midst of a crowd of noisy coolies
moving in every direction, each with his load slung at the ends of a
bamboo across his shoulders, and singing a monotonous "Aho, Aho, Aho!"
which appears as necessary to the Chinese carrier as the "Yo heave ho!"
to the sailor. Long, narrow junks were lying at the bank, and being
rapidly loaded with the familiar tea-chests; crowds of men, women and
children were coming from the plantation, each with bags of the freshly
picked leaves, or with baskets on their heads in which the more
delicate kinds were carefully carried. We stepped into the building,
and there witnessed the entire operation of assorting, firing the teas,
and even the manufacturing of the chests. We would gladly have
remained, but Aho came up and informed us "that breakfast hab got
spoilem," so we deferred further investigation until after the meal.

Akong joined us at breakfast, and partook of our curry and rice with
great gusto, for tea-brokers as a rule are by no means averse to
foreign chow-chow, and handle a knife and fork with almost as much ease
as they do the native chop-sticks. Charley plied us both with questions
regarding tea in general, and probably the following summary will
pretty well represent the result of his queries:

The cultivation of the tea-plant is by no means confined to any one
district or spot, but is scattered about through the different
provinces, each producing its peculiar description known to the trade
by its distinctive name. We were now in the Hupeh or Oopack country,
and the tea we saw being gathered and prepared was the heavy-liquored
black-leafed description, known in England and to the trade as Congou.
This Congou forms the staple of the mixture known in that country un