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353 
INTRODUCTION. 
Hongkong, a corruption of Hiangkiang, *nlie fragrant streams/' is the name of one of a 
number of islands in the China Sea, at a short distance from the mouth of the " River of 
Pearls/' on the left bank of which stands the city of Canton, and from which it is divided 
by a narrow strait, called Kap-shui-mun {vulgo, Cap-sing-moon*), or " Swift-water Passage," 
running between the mainland and a continuous chain of small islands, of similar character 
and aspect to itself. It is situated between lat. 22° 9' and 22° 21' north, and long. 114° 6' 
and 114° 18', and is distant from Canton about eighty-five miles, and forty from the Portu- 
guese settlement of Macao, on the peninsula of Kiangshan. At the narrowest part of the 
Lai-i-mun passage to the eastward, it is only about half a native mile from the mainland. 
It resembles, in general form, a scalene triangle, of which the apex is towards the west, but 
is of very irregular and sinuous outhue, especially on the southern coast, which forms the 
longest side of the triangle, having an area of 29'14 square miles; while it is not quite 
twenty-seven miles in circumference. It consists of a long and precipitous mountain-ridge, 
running east and west, in some places gradually sloping down towards the sea, where it is 
met by extensive level beaches of fine, clear, white quartz-sand ; in others terminating 
abruptly in frowning, perpendicular cliffs, more than a hundred feet in height, perforated at 
their base by caverns, into which the waves dash with a hollow sound, throwing up clouds 
of spray. Prom this ridge spurs diverge at different angles. The peaks vary in altitude, 
the loftiest being about 1860 feet above the sea-level. The prevailing rock is syenite (ex- 
tensively quarried, and used for edifices), which is found in immense blocks, imbedded in a 
soil composed of the same rock, in various stages of disintegration and decomposition 
(laterite), or piled up in fantastic shapes on the hill summits. The constituents of this rock 
also occur more or less separate; felspar in its normal condition, or changed into a pure 
white or pinkish clay ; hornblende cropping out on the surface, in deep black, lustrous 
p 
* B J a very natural error, plants gathered about tliis locality are noticed thus in nearly all systematic 
works; *'llab- in Cap. Syng-moon," or " Creacit ad Prom, Sing-moon," the first word being underatood 
as an abbreviation of Caput, 
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