CHINA. 



317 



Natural 

 Hi;nrjr. 



So.: 



Earth- 

 quake:. 



Minrra. 

 ogj. 



troduction of vaccination by Sir G. Staunton and Mr 

 Pearson into Canton, and the progress which the prac- 

 tice is making throughout the empire, they have the pros- 

 pect of being delivered from the ravages of that dreadful 

 disorder more effectually, than by the most improved 

 system of Yariolous inoculation. The venereal disease is 

 not common in China, but chiefly exists in their sea ports, 

 and is therefore called by the Chinese, the Canton ulcer. 

 Even those, who are infested with the distemper, do not 

 appear to suffer so much from its effects as persons in 

 Europe ; but generally find relief, and often a complete 

 remedy, by the use of diluents and sudorifics. Sore eyes 

 aud total blindness are affirmed to prevail very generally, 

 especially among the lower classes ; and has been ascribed 

 to a variety of causes ; to their low, crowded, and smoky 

 habitations ; to the noxious effluvia from the dirt and of- 

 fals, generally collected near the houses; to the custom of 

 washing the face, even in the hottest days of summer, 

 with warm water-; to the uniform use of rice, or at least 

 to the steams of the dishes filled with it and other stews ; 

 to the strong varnish used by those who work in japan- 

 ning ; to the smoke of their perfumed shops and candles 

 morning and evening ; to the practice of eating and 

 drinking every thing extremely hot ; to the blowing of 

 the north winds over the snowy mountains of Tartary ; 

 and to the mode of inoculating for the small-pox, by in- 

 serting the virus into the nose. Osbeck, however, affirms, 

 that the Chinese declared the greater part of the blind 

 among them to have been born in that condition ; and 

 he himself denies, that they were so numerous, at least at 

 Canton, as has been represented. 



The general character of the soil is a loose sand, free 

 from stones, of a reddish or yellowish colour, sometimes 

 upon a bottom of clay, and furnishing, in certain places, 

 a vegetative mould to the depth of five or six feet. 



Slight and short earthquakes are said to be frequently 

 felt in all the provinces ; but there is no appearance of 

 volcanic productions in the country, though various sub- 

 stances of that description are found in some of the islands 

 along the western and southern coasts. 



Several of the mountains contain mines of quicksilver, 

 tin, copper, iron, silver, and gold ; but it has been the 

 general policy of thejrovernment to discourage the work- 

 ing of these ores. They are not, however, entirely ne- 

 glected, and are all the property of the Emperor. The 

 copper mines in the provinces of Yun-nan and Koei- 

 tcheoo are very productive ; and the former yield a kind 

 of white copper resembling silver, which is rendered soft- 

 er and less brittle by being mixed with zinc or some 

 similar metal. The Lolos procure, also, from the mines 

 in Yunnan, both gold and silver in an impure state, which 

 are well refined by the Chinese artists. Great part of 

 the gold in China, however, is procured from the sand 

 of the rivers and torrents, which flow from the western 

 mountains, especially those of Setchuen and Yunnan. 

 This gold is chiefly employed in gilding, and in making 

 trinkets, and similar articles of merchandise. Iron, k-ad, 

 und tin, are extremely abundant, and sold at a moderate 

 price, in every quarter of the empire. Small rubies are 

 also found in Yunnan, but the greater part of the pre- 

 cious stones, >old in this province, are supposed to be 

 procured from the neighbouring kingdoms of Ava and 

 Laos. In the western districts, lapis lazuli, resembling 

 that of Europe, is found in sufficient abundance ; and 

 beautiful rock crystals, which are cut into buttons, seals, 

 and other trinkets* are procured from the province of 

 It'kien. There are numerous collieries throughout the 

 empire, especially in the vicinity of Canton, which are 

 Corked by driving levels into the sides of the mountains ; 



and the coal which they yield is immediately transported Natural 

 to the potteries in Kiang-see and Quan-tong. The coal 

 is generally charred in large pits before being used, or """"V" 1 

 pounded and mixed with earth, and formed into small 

 bricks for heating the stoves used in cookery. In the 

 same mountains, also, are very extensive stone quarries, 

 from which are cut large blocks for sepulchral monu- 

 ments, for the arches of bridges, for paving the streets, 

 &c. These masses are cut by applying the saw to the 

 upper surface, and working vertically to the depth re- 

 quired ; and each stone is fashioned to the proper shape 

 and size, before being removed from the parent bed. 

 Between Canton and the first pagoda on the banks of the 

 river, there is a succession of old quarries, which have 

 been so regularly cut in this way, as to have the appear- 

 ance of buildings in ruin. Marble quarries are not un- 

 common, particularly in Fokien ; but the Chinese are 

 said to be unacquainted with the best modes of working 

 them. Sonorous stones, of which musical instruments 

 are made, are found in the rivers and torrents, which flow 

 along the bottom of the mountains in Yunnan, Koei- 

 tcheco, and Shensee. They are of very different degrees 

 of density and gravity ; but the most esteemed is that, 

 called Yu, to which the Chinese authors ascribe a num- 

 ber of qualities, of which the modern specimens afford 

 no proof. The most esteemed of these are of a whey 

 colour, and the next in value are of the colours of bright 

 blue, azure, indigo, citron-yellow, orange, logwood-red, 

 pale-green, sea-green, deep-green, cinder-grey, &c. Thu 

 largest of them, ever seen by the missionaries in the Im. 

 perial palaces, were two and a half or three feet in length, 

 and one and a half in breadth. The best are so extreme- 

 ly hard, that, when cut and polished, the best tempered 

 steel slides upon their surface, without making any im- 

 pression ; and so heavy, that four men, it is affirmed, 

 could scarcely move a single block of two and a half 

 feet in length, and half a foot in breadth. Another 

 species, called the ox-fat-stone, resembling agate, is more 

 common ; but is inferior to the yu in hardness, weight, 

 and tone, and is not found in pieces sufficiently large for 

 making musical instruments. There is a third kind, re- 

 sembling alabaster, which yields a hard metallic sound ; 

 and a fourth species, like marble, apparently vitrified in 

 some parts, and seeming to be composed of talc and crys- 

 tal. One of the Chinese musical stones, which was ana- 

 lysed by the Duke de Chaulnes, neither attracted the 

 magnet," nor discovered any phosphoric quality, but 

 shewed a number of small particles resembling pyrites; 

 produced a strong effervescence when dissolved in acids; 

 and yielded much the same results as black marble, se- 

 veral kinds of which have been found to be highly sono- 

 rous. 



The principal mountainous tracts in China are in the Mountains, 

 northern and western provinces. Many of those in the 

 latter districts are cultivated, but those in the former di- 

 rection are rocky and barren. In the provinces of Shen- 

 see and Ho- nan, towards the centre of the empire, and 

 in those of Quantong and Fokien in- the south, the moun- 

 tains are generally covered \vith lofty forests, chiefly of 

 pine trees, which supply excellent timber for ship build- 

 ing, and from which tlie emperor causes enormous trunks 

 to be transported to great distances, to be employed in 

 the construction of his palaces, and other public edifices. 

 Those in the neighbourhood of Canton are remarkably 

 wild and rugged ; but those, which appear along the 

 southern coast of the gulf of Pe-tche lee, which are 

 nearly of the same size and form, and entirely detached 

 from each other, are smooth regular cones, as if they had 

 been fashioned by the the hand of art. Most of the moun- 



