us, that the production is already so vast, that any demand from us could have no appreciable effect.  And as to future supplies, if we should come to drink as much as the Chinese themselves, a matter not at all needful to be considered at present, the Committee report that “the cultivation of the plant may be indefinitely extended;” whilst Mr. Fortune, who has been upon the spot, states “that there is not the slightest doubt that there is a great part of the land which is nearly uncultivated now, which, were there a demand for tea, could be brought into cultivation.  The cost would be very little indeed; they would cut down a quantity of brushwood, and probably dig over the ground and plant the bushes.  They could clear and plant it in the same year, and in about two years they could get something from it.”  As, however, without this extension they have hitherto found enough for the increase of their own vast population, for every extension of demand from us and every other foreign customer, whether by land or water, without the least tendency to an advance in price, there is no need to do more than thus touch upon the undeveloped resources of tea production.—­Travers on the Tea Duties.

The consumption of tea in Russia is very great, as the middling classes make a more frequent use of that beverage than the rest.  Every year 60,000 chests of tea arrive at Maimiatchin and Kiakhta, of the declared official value of L1,185,000 sterling; and to this may be added L38,650 for inferior tea used by the people of the south, which makes the total declared value of the tea introduced about one and a quarter million sterling.  The consumption of Russia may be assumed at over fifteen millions of pounds, although we have no correct data, as in the case of shipping returns, to calculate from.  In 1848, however, the Russians took 136,2171/2 boxes of fine tea of the Chinese, for which they paid 5,349,918 silver roubles—­one million sterling.  The quantity forwarded from Kiakhta into the interior consisted of—­

                                        Foods. 
  Flowery or Pekoe tea 69,677
  Ordinary tea 183,752
  Brick tea 116,249
    Equal to about fifteen million lbs.  English.

Brick tea of Thibet.—­A sample of this curious product was shown by the East India Company in 1851.  It is formed of the refuse tea-leaves and sweepings of the granaries, damped and pressed into a mould, generally with a little bullock’s blood.  The finer sorts are friable masses, and are packed in papers; the coarser sewn up in sheep’s skin.  In this form it is an article of commerce throughout Central and Northern Asia and the Himalayan provinces; and is consumed by Mongols, Tartars, and Tibetans, churned with milk, salt, butter, and boiling water, more as a soup than as tea proper.  Certain quantities are forced upon the acceptance of the Western tributaries of the Chinese Empire, in payment for the support of troops, &c.; and is hence, from its convenient size and form, brought into circulation as a coin, over an area greater than that of Europe.—­Dr. Hooker, in Jury Reports.