66 NOTES UPON THE GULF OF PECHELI, [Nov. 22, 1858. 



at 1 2 o'clock to the 6 fathoms marked on the Admiralty chart of the 

 Gulf of Pecheli, we obtained exactly that amount of water and saw 

 the land rise like a black line out of the waters on the western 

 horizon, proving that the chart was so far very correct. 



Running into [4 fathoms water, and sighting the leading marks 

 over the bar of the Peiho River — a bar which we did not then 

 despair of carrying the Furious across — we shortened sail, and 

 anchored close to the Russian war-steamer America, bearing the flag 

 of the Admiral and Plenipotentiary Count Putiatin. Shortly after- 

 wards, H. M. S. Pique, Captain Sir F. Nicolson, joined us. 



It must be acknowledged that our anchorage, as well as the view 

 of the adjacent coast, was far from cheering. We were 8i miles oif 

 the shore, with only 22 feet under our keel at low-water. The 

 sea was of a thick muddy colour, the sky murky and misty. 

 Very indistinctly visible to the westward the low land at the mouth 

 of the Peiho was seen dancing from the effects of refraction, whilst 

 three eminences, more marked in outline than the rest, denoted the 

 position of the forts and batteries of Taku, which, of course, we well 

 knew, in spite of the surf, the bar, and all the Tartars in Mongolia, 

 would very shortly be ours. 



At night the breeze slackened somewhat, and the sea became 

 overspread with phosphoric light, as brilliant as any ever witnessed 

 in equatorial regions ; this, however, only took place once or twice, 

 and that during the early period of our stay in the Gulf, and it is 

 right that I should say that the very muddy condition of the sea- 

 water gradually abated as the season advanced, and in July the 

 water at the anchorage was simply of a turbid sea-green colour. 

 This change arises, probably, from the rivers having ceased to throw 

 so large a volume into the Gulf of Pecheli after the snows of the 

 uplands had melted away, and because the constant action of the 

 southerly monsoon forces in more salt-water from the seas beyond : 

 an opinion substantiated somewhat by the increased depth of water 

 at the Furious' s anchorage of no less than one foot during the three 

 months she remained there, the south-west monsoon having com- 

 menced. 



Time, however, reconciled us considerably to the apparent 

 deficiencies of the anchorage we were in, and I have no hesitation 

 in saying that, as a summer holding-ground, it is sufficiently safe — 

 that is, from April 14th to the end of September. Vessels, we 

 know, have been much later at it, and in a steamer, with good 

 anchors and cables, the roadstead might be used until the winter 

 ice, which forms in the rivers, compelled her to start for Mia-tao 

 Strait. During the eleven weeks the Furious and squadron remained 



