524 
FOURTH BULLETIN OF 
[ 1846 . 
particularly not to get into broils on the subject of slavery. The wisest course for 
an American to pursue abroad in this respect is to waive the subject, or quit the 
company, as it is of very little use reasoning with foreigners in the matter. If you 
cannot make up your mind to pursue either of these plans, give your opponent a 
clout in the face, when, as is most likely, you will get a return, which will end in 
set fisticuffs, when you will be satisfied, if a hero. 
If any American gentlemen should conclude to travel in India, they ought to be 
careful to do so in the healthy season, that is, from November to March. 
There are some valuable and unique agricultural, religious, and scientific jour¬ 
nals published in India, which are invariably filled with original matter relating to 
the country. There are also agricultural societies in Ceylon, Calcutta, Bombay, 
and Madras, &c., which every year give a vast fund of information to the agri¬ 
culturists of the country. There are likewise superior breeds of dairy and work¬ 
ing cattle, goats, hogs, horses, poultry, and sheep, in India, which might be intro¬ 
duced with great and undoubted success in our Southern country. On the Mala¬ 
bar coast there is a superior breed of long-horned cattle, as there is also of sheep 
and goats, and likewise the celebrated Cochin fowls. I have seen from the north 
of China a superior kind of long silky-haired sheep and goats , with brandling 
horns, which I am convinced would be a great improvement on some of our 
breeds. 
There is a kind of sheep mentioned by Moorcroft in his travels in Upper India, 
as having wool of very superior quality, and the flavor o! the mutton very fine—of 
one kind the breed is so small that at their maturity they are no larger than our 
lambs five or six months old. These are called Funk sheep ; they inhabit a region 
very similar in temperature and latitude to our extreme southern Alleghany chain. 
In the north of India, in the Hamalayas, is found a large species of sheep, used 
by the natives for carrying burdens of thirty or forty pounds. It has large branch¬ 
ing horns, and in winter the hair is very fine, and tliey assume a long inajcvstic 
beard. Some of the wool is as fine as the hair of the cashmere goat. It is called 
barrel in these parts. In Nepaul they have another variety of small sheep, with 
fine wool, called kahgai. 
There is another subject which might be mentioned. Why could not Chinese 
emigrants be introduced into our Southern country as agriculturists and mechanics. 
They are good sugar and rice growers, bricklayers, carpenters, and blacksmiths, 
and could be imported very cheap. Doubtless one day some plan will be formed 
to carry into effect a scheme of emigration at a cheap rate. The Chinese brick- 
makers make very handsome sun-burnt bricks, with which they build all their 
houses. They cannot afford wood to burn them properly. The plasterers are 
likewise very skilful in making figures in lime and mortar, with which every con¬ 
siderable Chinese house is adorned. They have a curious water-wheel, made by 
connecting a number of paddles on hinges of bamboo or ratan, and turned by a 
wheel worked by two persons. This wheel is used for emptying ponds, mines, and 
cellars, for irrigation of land, filling casks, &c. The whole is made of wood, 
and works on a similar principle to the water-band, and can be made for ten or 
twelve dollars. It is transported from place to place on two men’s shoulders. 
Their blacksmiths likewise make capital carpenters’ and other mechanics’ tools by 
the simplest processes, generally using charcoal for fire. Their stonecutters’ 
chisels are very hard steel, and the hammer he uses of soft iron. They are capi¬ 
tal stone-dressers. 
The Chinese preserve eggs in the following manner: They take soft clay and a 
small quantity of salt, and mix together to form a paste, and smear the eggs with 
it. They will keep a long time in this. In India eggs are kept fresh for long 
periods—perfectly fresh, in the poorer kinds of salt, which are about the consis¬ 
tence of sugar found at the bottom of molasses casks. If some cheap plan could be 
formed foi preserving eggs in our Western States, they would form a large article 
of export to the West India islands and England. 
There are two articles which are singular in their nature and of great value, 
which are of great consumption in China, viz : bird-nests and the sea-slug, called 
beche de mar . The bird-nests are taken in all the islands and mainlands of the 
China seas, and are sold at from eighty dollars to two hundred dollars per picul! 
The beche de mar is caught on the coral reefs in the neighborhood of New Guinea, 
Palawan, Borneo, the north of New Holland, Torres Straits, the Fejee Islands, and, 
