A closer view of these graves in the same delta plain is given in
the lower section of Fig. 24, where they are seen in the midst of
fields and to occupy not only large areas of valuable land but to be
much in the way of agricultural operations. A still closer view of
other groups, with a farm village in the background, is shown in the
middle section of the same illustration, and here it is better seen
how large is the space occupied by them. On the right in the same
view may be seen a line of six graves surmounting a common lower
base which is a type of the larger and higher ones so suggestive of
buildings seen in the horizon of the upper section.

Everywhere we went in China, about all of the very old and large
cities, the proportion of grave land to cultivated fields is very
large. In the vicinity of Canton Christian college, on Honam island,
more than fifty per cent of the land was given over to graves and in
many places they were so close that one could step from one to
another. They are on the higher and dryer lands, the cultivated
areas occupying ravines and the lower levels to which water may be
more easily applied and which are the most productive. Hilly lands
not so readily cultivated, and especially if within reach of cities,
are largely so used, as seen in Fig. 25, where the graves are marked
by excavated shelves rather than by mounds, as on the plains. These
grave lands are not altogether unproductive for they are generally
overgrown with herbage of one or another kind and used as pastures
for geese, sheep, goats and cattle, and it is not at all uncommon,
when riding along a canal, to see a huge water buffalo projected
against the sky from the summit of one of the largest and highest
grave mounds within reach. If the herbage is not fed off by animals
it is usually cut for feed, for fuel, for green manure or for use in