APPENDIX. 281 



Shanghai, September 24, 1876. 

 Steamers and sailing vessels are lying at the wharves, and 

 farther down are anchored in the stream opposite the " Bund " 

 (the street lying along the river). This is lined with substantial 

 buildings, some of them magnificent in their size and solidity, 

 and presenting, as far as the eye can reach, a handsome and impos- 

 ing appearance. Other streets running back from the water are 

 built up closely with heavy, solid stone buildings for a distance of 

 several squares. This is the foreign settlement or " concession," 

 as it is called. Back of this lies the native city, containing about 

 ?E quarter of a million inhabitants. Below the foreign shipping 

 in the stream is a forest of masts belonging to the native junks, 

 of which, seemingly, there are thousands. These penetrate to 

 every part of the empire through the great system of canals (of 

 which China has more miles than any other country on the globe), 

 and have much to do with making Shanghai the great commer- 

 cial entrepot that she is. Some of the sailing vessels at anchor in 

 the stream are of the veritable old clipper-ship type, which, be- 

 fore the days of sci-ew steamers, monopolized the carrying trade 

 of the East. It does one good to look at them, even now, with 

 their beautiful models and tall, gracefully tapered spars — " sky- 

 scrapers " we used to call them ; but they have had their day, and 

 all-conquering steam now rules even the furthermost parts of the 

 globe. Just before us lie the handsome steamers of the " Penin- 

 sula and Oriental" and the "Messageries Maritimes" lines, which 

 furnish direct through steam communication with Liverpool and 

 Marseilles weekly. Along the " French Bund," as it is called, 

 for nominally the Bund is divided into the French, American, 

 and English concessions, lie the steamboats of the " Shanghai 

 Steam Navigation Company," which ply upon the " Yang-tse," 

 and once controlled the entire trade of that great river. They 

 are of American build, on the familiar model of our river and 

 sound steamboats, and are largely owned by American capital. 

 They stiU do a large and remunerative trade, but have to sustain 

 a vigorous opposition from an English company which was organ- 

 ized some few years since, and it is understood that the invest- 

 ment does not now pay nearly so well as it once did. Indeed, all 

 commerce here appears to be in a very depressed state, and the, 



