144 CANTON RIVER DESCRIBED. [Cuar. IX. 
The officers of the troops stationed at Chusan, 
who were fond of shooting, obtained excellent sport 
by engaging Chinese boats and going across to the 
hills on the main-land, there being little game of 
any kind upon the island itself. 
Having got all my things packed, I took a 
passage in a vessel bound for the South, and having 
a fair monsoon down the China sea, we arrived at 
Hong-kong in a few days, without any thing oc- 
curring worthy of notice. The various collections 
which I had made in the North were now put up 
in glazed cases and shipped for England. 
As the south of China had been ransacked by 
former botanists, I could not expect to find much 
which was new or worthy of being sent home, and 
I therefore arranged to proceed north again in 
March or April, in order to have a whole season 
before me. In the meantime, as I had a few weeks 
to spare in the south, I determined on a visit to 
Canton and Macao, which are both within a short 
distance from Hong-kong. 
The Canton river is certainly one of the most 
imposing and striking objects which the traveller 
meets with in this celebrated country. The sea, 
near its mouth, is studded all over with numerous 
islands, of which a good view is obtained in going 
over from Hong-kong to Macao; and in sailing from 
either of these places to Canton, we pass a suc- 
cession of them, most of which are mountainous, 
having huge masses of rock and yellow gravelly 
clay protruding here and there through the sur- 
