GLASS SHOPS. 
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earth of other countries, but the petuntse has not been so well ascer- 
tained. The late Sir George Staunton described it as a species of 
granite, in which quartz seemed to bear the largest proportion. 
I am rather inclined to think, that pure quartz alone is the petuntse 
of the Chinese, from having, when off Hong-kong, seen boats laden 
with quartz evidently taken from veins which abounded in the 
neighbouring granite rocks. 
Although more fortunate in obtaining the minerals said to be 
employed in colouring the porcelain, I have no other observation to 
make respecting them, than that their names did not accord with 
their colours, proving that they undergo some modification before 
they are applied to the porcelain, or whilst they are exposed to the 
heat of the furnace. It was not without repeated assurances that I 
had no intention of establishing a porcelain manufactory in my own 
country, that I was enabled to procure them from their vender at a 
considerable price. 
Glass shops abound in the streets of Canton, but are chiefly filled 
with European goods, excepting only those of the mirror makers. 
All the looking-glasses that we saw in China were remarkable for the 
extreme thinness of the plate, which was scarcely thicker than com- 
mon writing paper, but was coated with an amalgam in the manner 
of our own. According to the Missionaries, the Chinese have for 
ages possessed the art of glass making ; but if this be the fact, it is 
singular that they should derive no advantage from it ; and whilst 
they set a very high price on all glass articles, make none but from 
the glass which they obtain from Europeans and re-melt. Till we 
arrived in the province of Canton, excepting small mirrors and a few 
baubles, we had met with no glass throughout the empire. 
The drug shops in Canton were as numerous as in other cities 
of China, but did not enable me to obtain much information respect- 
ing the pharmacy of the country: they contained an innumerable 
list of simples, a few gums, and some minerals. Many of the first 
are sold in small packets ; each packet containing a dose or certain 
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