of recording families in the ancestral hall which induce an acquaintance with the subject;—but it is a circumstance of note that a Chinese, however low his rank, if asked the number of families in his village is invariably prompt with a reply,—and in three answers out of four the number approximates.
As Ning kong jow is often visited by Missionaries from Ningpo, no more need be said of it than that it appears to be a place of considerable traffic in timber and bamboos, as seen in rafts on the stream. Of its reported 3 000 families it boasts a fine ancestral Hall of the 富 Foo family.
Four lé from Ning kong jow, in a Sou' westerly direction, is a village called Pow she hoe The scenery on the road is most pleasing; the high cliffs overhanging the stream giving it the character of the country about the Swiss Lakes. Fishing with cormorants is common here;—the house wives busy with cotton spinning.
About three miles from Pow she ho in a Nor' westerly direction is the Heaven Struck rock, a spot of considerable note among the natives of the district. The path way to it is cut out of solid brown lava like rock,—the hill angling up at about 80° to a height of seven or eight hundred feet. Teen tung gun is the native name of the locality. The stream at this place, though shallow, flows rapidly from the Eastward.
A little to the northward of Teen tung gun is the village of Tching koe with 1,000 families. Good blue Bricks and Tiles are made at Tching koe,—the size of the former, 13 inches by 7 by 2 being quite out of parliamentary standard. They are half burnt as in the south. In building they are placed edgeways—hollows of from three to nine inches being left throughout each wall. This mode of building is the same throughout the
