1877 -] Notices of Boohs. 265 
people, who look well-fed and healthy, and have a fair amount 
of muscular development. The women, however, appear to be 
the dominant class, for they work like the men as coolies and 
labourers, and preside in the shops. They are generally good- 
looking, carry themselves gracefully, and, but for the practice of 
blackening their teeth, many might be called handsome. In 
manner the Tonquinese are quiet, and, owing perhaps to the 
arbitrary government they are under, subdued and indolent. 
Mr. N. B. Dennys, who visited Tonquin last spring as the dele- 
gate of Hong-kong General Chamber of Commerce, gives us, in 
his Report, some more details respecting the women of Tonquin, 
and it will be seen that he is at variance v/ith Sir Brooke 
Robertson on the subjedt of their good looks. “The dress of 
the women,” he writes, “ is picturesque, their figures are good, 
but their faces, as a rule, are by no means pretty, and very dirty- 
looking. They wear trowsers, with a square piece of silk over 
the breast, fastened behind. The better sort wear a long dress 
over this. Their heads are covered with cloth turbans, with the 
hair so arranged as to seem as if it was in a small net at the 
back. The teeth of both men and women are, as amongst other 
betel-chewing races, perfectly black, and their lips a bright red. 
The ordinary dress of the men is a long coat and trowsers, with 
a conical hat, from either side of which hang long pieces of 
silk.” 
Returning to Sir B. Robertson’s Report, we note some of the 
leading geographical features of the country. The principal 
river in Tonquin, the Ho-ti-kiang, — better known now as the 
Hung-kiang in Chinese and the Sung-koi in the native language, 
both names meaning Red River, — has its rise in Thibet, and is 
navigable from Mang-hao, the last city in the Chinese province 
of Yunnan, down to the sea, a distance of 414 miles. Mang-hae 
is the entrepot where goods are shipped to and from Tonquin. 
the mart being a more northern city, called Mang-tsze, which is 
also situated on the banks of the same river. The Sonk-koi 
divides into various branches, the two southern ones meeting 
above Hanoi ; on one of them stands the town of Niuh-brinh. 
and on the other Nam-diuh and Hung-yen. These two branches 
communicate by canals, on one of which is situated the town ol 
Fouli. It is not necessary further to describe the various 
branches, &c., of the Song-koi ; but as it may become of very 
great importance, if the French ever succeed in opening up a 
trade with South-Western China, which Sir B. Robertson evi- 
dently considers by no means an impossibility, the following 
remarks of his are not without interest : — “ I saw the peculiarly 
constructed boats, of great length and drawing little water, em- 
ployed in ascending the river as far as Mang-hao and Mang-tsze, 
both large trading cities in Yunnan, and I closely questioned one 
or two people who had been that route, and they stated that no 
difficulties existed. That the River Song-koi is available, 
