294 EAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. [Ch. XYHI. 



calm, for it is so extensive, that though it may be compared 

 to a large lake, its waters are in some seasons swept by such 

 violent winds that ships have foundered and gone down in 

 them, -.and the dilapidated condition of the massive stone 

 pier which forms the right-hand side of the harbour attests 

 the power of the waves ia displacing the huge blocks from 

 their cemented bed. 



The best built part of the town of Manilla is contained 

 withiu the walls of the citadel, which is duly fortified. Here 

 the streets are narrow and regular and tolerably well paved, 

 the windows universally glazed with the shells of the Chinese 

 window-oyster (Placuna placenta) in default of glass, which 

 is very rarely seen. There are few or no shops ia this part ; 

 but surrounding the citadel are the suburbs, or Pueblos, 

 containing by far the busiest and most lively streets, with 

 numerous good shops. The greater number and the best of 

 these are kept by Chinese, who form a large proportion of 

 the population, and appear to be industrious and tolerably 

 clean. Their streets have a very cheerful appearance — a sun- 

 awning of blue and white running along the tops of the shops, 

 and crowds of respectably-dressed Chinese standing or sitting 

 at doors, smoking their pipes and chatting — while the shops 

 themselves have wares exposed in them of a far superior class 

 to those which one is accustomed to see in Chinese shops 

 elsewhere. One circumstance strikes the visitor as remark- 

 ably strange and anomalous — viz., the profusion of pictures 

 of Eoman Catholic saints, and prints of a religious character 

 which adorn them ; crucifixes, and rosaries, and other para- 

 phernalia of the dominant religion, which Chinese scruples 

 do not prevent their turning to account ; and if one might 

 judge by their abundance and prominence, it may be pre- 

 sumed that the enterprising Chinese tradespien find these 



