WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
FIRST JOURNEY. 
CHAPTER I. 
First View of China, and the Impressions i^rocluced — Land at 
Hong-kong — Description of its Harbour — Town of Victoria — 
Chinese Towns, Stanley and Aberdeen — Description of the Island 
— Effects of Eains — " Happy Valley " noticed — Chinese mode 
of " Stopping the Supplies " — Views from the Tops of Mountains 
— Climate — Botany of the Island — Few Animals indigenous — 
Unhealthiness of the Settlement — Character of the Chinese 
Population — Mixed Character of Foreigners — Kemarks on the 
Settlement as a Place of Trade. 
On the sixth of July, 1848, after a passage of four 
months from England, I had the first view of the shores 
of China : and although I had often heard of the bare 
and unproductive hills of this celebrated country, I cer- 
tainly was not prepared to find them so barren as they 
really are. Viewed from the sea, they have everywhere 
a scorched appearance, with rocks of granite and red 
clay showing all over their surface : the trees are few, 
and stunted in their growth, being perfectly useless for 
anything but fire -wood, the purpose to which they are 
generally applied in this part of the country. A kind 
of fir-tree (Pinus sinensis) seems to struggle hard for 
existence, and is found in great quantities all over the 
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