Cuar. IL] DESCRIPTION OF HONG-KONG. 15 
teal, quails, and pheasants; meat of all kinds; and in 
fact every luxury which the natives or foreigners 
can possibly require. Besides these, English pota- 
toes, green peas, and several other kinds of foreign 
vegetables are plentiful at almost all seasons of the 
year. 
The only other Chinese towns on the island of any 
note besides the new one just noticed, are on the 
south side, and used to be called Little Hong-kong 
and Chuckchew; their names have been changed 
lately by the governor, Sir J. Davis, into Stanley 
and Aberdeen. They are merely fishing-towns ; but 
the government always keeps up a military station 
at the latter, which renders it of some importance. 
Hong-kong is one of the largest islands near 
the mouth of the Canton river. It is about 
eight miles from east to west, and the widest 
part of it is not more than six miles; but it is very 
irregular, some parts being only three miles in 
breadth, and the land jutting out here and there, 
forming a succession of headlands and bays. Ima- 
gine, then, an island considerably longer than it is 
broad, perfectly mountainous, and sloping in a 
rugged manner to the water’s edge, having here 
and there deep ravines almost at equal distances 
along the coast, which extend from the tops of the 
mountains down to the sea, deepening and widen- 
ing in their course. There are immense blocks of 
granite in these ravines, which have either been 
bared by the rapid currents of water in its descent 
during the rains, or which have tumbled into them 
