Miscellaneous. 137 



procurable in most parts of the island, and for buildings of any 

 descriptions in the Sea-port town of Ting-hae, such as barracks, 

 warehouses, docks, &c. stone could be quarried to almost any 

 extent from the neighbourhood of Sin-kong, on the Western coast, and 

 delivered in Chusan bay by water conveyance at an economical rate. 

 No limestone is of course procurable on the island, and the small 

 quantity of this material which is used by the Natives is obtained from 

 shells of the ostrea tribe, which it is probable abound among the islands 

 of the archipaelago. Sand also is not procurable on any of the coasts, 

 but a supply may be obtained from several of the islands which are 

 exposed to the direct wash of the sea ; it is however scarce, and general- 

 ly speaking not well adapted for making mortar. The clay formed by 

 the decomposition of the trap ranges, and washed down by the numer- 

 ous streams, will make excellent bricks, but it appears that those used 

 in the island are imported from the main land, no trace of a brick 

 maker's shed or a kiln having been observed, which probably arises 

 from the scarcity, indeed the utter want, of fuel in Chusan. The bricks 

 used in the parapets of the town walls and in the buildings of the 

 towns and villages, are remarkably good, made of a most tenacious and 

 well ground clay, and cast in moulds of 12 inches by 5, by 3 : they are 

 generally said to be half burnt, but from the absence of any appearance 

 of oxidization of the iron which would be caused by exposure to flame, 

 I should be disposed to say that they are sun-dried. 



General Remarks. — Regarding the island of Chusan as a spot destin- 

 ed henceforward to be ranked amongst the Eastern possessions of the 

 British Empire, and to become the home and abode of a portion of our 

 fellow subjects, it cannot but be admitted that it presents features of at- 

 traction sufficient to render it in many essential respects as important a 

 fief as has of late years been added to the Crown. The nature of its 

 coasts, and the peculiarity of its internal physical features, render it a 

 place easily defensible by a comparatively small garrison of disciplined 

 troops against such forces as the Chinese could send to invade it : on 

 the W. Coast, at the debouchre of several vallies, troops might be landed 

 with ease, but martello towers, or small forts mounting a long gun and 

 one or two small mortars, which could be erected at a trifling cost, 

 would serve to keep them effectually in check, while the alarm spread to 

 the neighbouring town of Sin-kong, where a fort with a proper garrison 

 would, in the event of our permanently occupying the island, be of course 

 established (under existing circumstances indeed a strong post should 

 have been established long since at this point), and a body of troops in 



the course of a few hours could be concentrated to repel them. On the 



T 



