IN QUANTITY, TOE MAKKET. 9 



general rule. Bad-fitting, loose, creaking doors; paper win- 

 dows, dirty and torn, ducks, geese, fowls, dogs and pigs, in the 

 house and at the doors, apparently having equal righto with 

 their masters. 



The hatching-house was built at the end of the cottage and 

 was a kind of long shed, with mud walls and thickly thatched 

 with straw. Along the ends and down one side of the build- 

 ings are a number of round straw baskets, well plastered with 

 mud, to prevent them from taking fire. In the bottom of each 

 basket there was a tile placed, or rather the tile forms the 

 bottom of the basket. Upon this the fire acts — a small fire- 

 place being below each basket. Upon the top of each basket 

 there is a straw cover, which fits closely, and which is kept 

 shut while the batching process is going on. In the centre of 

 the shed are a number of large shelves placed one above the 

 other, upon which the eggs are laid at a certain stage of the 

 process. When the eggs are brought, they are put into the 

 baskets, the fire is lighted below them, and a uniform heat 

 kept up ; ranging, as nearly as I could ascertain by some ob- 

 servations which I made with the thermometer, from 95 to 102 

 degrees. But the Chinamen regulate the' heat by their own 

 feelings, and therefore it will, of course, vary considerably. 



In four or five days after the eggs have been subject to this 

 temperature, they are taken carefully out, one by one, to a 

 door in which a number of holes have been bored, nearly the 

 size of the eggs ; they are then held against these holes, and 

 the Chinamen look through them, and are able to tell wliether 

 they are good or not. If good, they are taken back and re- 

 placed in their former quarters ; if bad, they are of course ex- 

 cluded. In nine or ten days after this — that is, about fourteen 

 days from the commencement, the eggs are taken from the 

 basket, and spread out on the shelves. Plere no fire heat is 

 applied, but they are covered over with cotton, and a kind 

 of blanket, under which they remain about fourteen days 

 moie — when the young ducks burst their shells, and the shed 

 teems with life. These shelves are large and capable of holding 



