Chap. IV. 
ARTIFICIAL DUCK-HATCHING. 
59 
and thickly thatched with straw. Along the ends and 
down one side of the building are a number of round 
straw baskets, well plastered with mud, to prevent them 
from taking fire. In the bottom of each basket there is 
a tile placed, or rather the tile forms the bottom of the 
basket ; upon this the fire acts, — a small fireplace being 
below each basket. Upon the top of the basket there is 
a straw cover, which fits closely, and which is kept shut 
whilst the process is going on. In the centre of the shed 
are a number of large shelves placed one above another, 
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 an uniform 
heat kept up, ranging, as nearly as I could ascertain by 
some observations which I made with a thermometer, 
from 95 to 102^, 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 whether they are good 
or not. If good, they are taken back, and replaced in 
their former quarters ; if bad, they are of course excluded. 
In nine or ten days after this, that is, about fourteen 
days from the commencement, the eggs are taken from 
the baskets, and spread out on the shelves. Here no 
fire-heat is applied, but they are covered over with 
cotton and a kind of blanket, under which they remain 
