154 Among Men and Horses. 



foregoing remarks are made with reference to ocean-going 

 steamers, and not to coasters, which spend almost as much 

 time in port, taking in and discharging cargo, as they do at 

 sea. 



After all this talk about nautical matters, I have no doubt 

 that some of my maritime readers will ask : ' What does 

 he know about ships ? ' Not very much, I grant, except from 

 a passenger's point of view, and of that I have had a lot of 

 experience. Were I to undertake the navigation of a ship in 

 a crowded channel, I might fare no better than did the 

 skipper who, having hired a dog-cart, ran into another con- 

 veyance one night when driving down a street. When asked 

 how the collison happened, he explained, that having seen 

 two lights on his starboard bow, he steered right between 

 them. They happened to be carriage lamps. 



It was thorough punkah weather when we left Singapore, 

 and continued blazing even to Hong Kong, which has a lovely 

 harbour that appears land-locked on every side, when looking 

 from the town, behind which a steep mountain rises in green 

 and wooded array. 



The boatmen of Hong Kong, together with their wives 

 and children, form a large floating population. Each of the 

 open row boats, or sampans, which take passengers to and 

 from the shipping in the harbour, has, like a conjuror's box, a 

 false bottom, that on being lifted up will generally reveal a 

 nest of chubby little urchins who play, sleep, eat and have 

 their food cooked in a sort of cockpit, not quite two feet high. 

 The sampan which took us on shore, was handled, as is often 

 the custom, by women. We had not proceeded far before I 

 was surprised at hearing under my feet rippling sounds of 

 laughter, and at seeing thin wreaths of smoke arising from the 

 centre of the boat. I hastily pulled up a plank, and found 

 three or four fat little toddles trying experiments at cook- 

 ing. 



Although a considerable portion of the population of 

 China lives in boats on the rivers and harbours, not one ot 



