Cuar. IX.] NATIVE DEXTERITY IN DIVING. 151 
like coaches and other vehicles in a large town. 
The families who live in this manner seem to have 
a great partiality for flowers, which they keep in 
pots, either upon the high stern of their boats, or 
in their little parlours. The Chinese Arbor vite, 
Gardenias, Cycas revoluta, cockscombs, and oranges, 
seem to be the greatest favourites with them. <A 
joss-house—small indeed, in many cases, but yet 
a place of worship—is indispensable to all these 
floating houses. Here the joss-stick and the oil are 
daily burned, and form the incense which these 
poor people offer to their imaginary deity. 
Upon the sides of the river, and the numerous 
canals in the suburbs of Canton, whole streets of 
wooden houses are built upon stakes which are 
driven firmly into the mud. These dwellings very 
much resemble the travelling shows which are 
often seen in the market towns of England; except 
that posts supply the place of wheels, and that they 
are crowded together in hundreds, forming crooked 
and irregular streets. Thousands of the inhabit- 
ants live and enjoy health and happiness in such 
places, which would soon be graves for Europeans 
—such is the difference of constitution. 
But what surprised me most was the old women 
and young children bathing in the river, which 
seemed as if it were their natural element, and they 
appeared quite as much at home there as the fishes 
themselves. The Chinese boat population are 
famous for their dexterity in and under the water. 
Since the island of Hong-kong became an English 
: L4 
