BY TEE REV. J. E. TEN ISO If- WOODS. 



179 



While in Cochin China I found the work of Chas, Lemire, 

 entitled "Cochin Chine Franchise " (Paris, Challomel, 1884), a 

 most useful guide, and it in to its pages many of the foregoing 

 statements are due. 



HONG KONG. 



I first visited the south Chinese coast in 1885, arriving at 

 Hong Kong in the middle of January, or, as I may call it, the 

 depth of winter. It was piercingly cold at the time. All the 

 inhabitants who could afford them were wrapped up in winter 

 furs. The air was cloudy, damp, gloomy and raw to an extent 

 which recalled to my mind the melancholy fogs of London. 

 Having come straight from the fervid temperature of Singapore, 

 the change can he imagined. Three days after leaving the Straits 

 all our Chinese passengers came on deck swathed to the eyes in 

 quilted silks or cottons. It was evident that we were in a new 

 region. We were passing many fishing junks of the unmistak- 

 able Chinese pattern : the sails of palm canvas, with bamboo laths 

 across them like Venetian blinds. These junks, with thin 

 radiating ribbed sails, apparently lop-sided and conspicuously 

 down by the head, are characteristic sights to be seen nowhere 

 but in China. In their marine architecture, as in everything 

 else, the Chinese keep distinct from all the world. 



Amid the fog and mist which came thickly down upon us, we 

 steamed amongst many barren-looking granite islands, about the 

 fifth day from Singapore. At last one island with a very high 

 peak upon it, loomed out from the clouds at no great distance, 

 soon near enough to discern the forests of masts and crowds of 

 steam-funnels, junks, sampans, and small steam launches which 

 told unmistakably of a large seaport. As we neared it in the dull 

 light of that cold foggy day, it looked as picturesque as any place 

 I have ever seen. It may be defined as thick rows of masts ; then 

 handsome terraces of houses rising tier above tier upon such a 

 steep incline that they looked as if each higher range were founded 

 on the chimney-pots of the other. About half-way up the houses 



