122 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. VIII. 
move up and down in front of tlie factory. The effect 
produced upon a stranger at these times by the wild and 
occasionally plaintive strains of Chinese music, the noisy 
gong, the close and sultry air, the strange people, — full 
of peculiarities and conceit, — is such as he can never 
forget, and leaves upon his mind a mixed impression of 
pleasure, pity, admiration, and contempt. Throughout 
the whole of this immense floating city the greatest 
regularity prevails ; the large boats are arranged in 
rows, forming streets, through which the smaller craft 
pass and repass, like coaches and other vehicles in a 
/ large town. The families who live in this manner seem 
1 to have a great partiality for flowers, which they keep 
\m pots, either upon the high stern of their boats, or in 
/ their little parlours. The Chinese arbor vitse, gardenias, 
' cycas revoluta, cockscombs, and oranges, seem to be the 
greatest favourites with them. A joss-house— small in- 
\^deed, 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. 
The city and suburbs of Canton are supposed to con- 
tain about a million of inhabitants. 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 
dweUings 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 
