74 
MISCELLANY, 
The tallow now resembles coarse linseed meal, but with more 
white spots in it, and derives its brown colour from the thin covering 
over the seed (between it and the tallow) which is separated by the 
pounding and sifting. In this state it is put between circles of twisted 
straw, five or six of which are laid upon each other, and thus forming 
a hollow cylinder for its reception. When this straw cylinder (we 
may call it so) has been filled, it is carried away and placed in the 
press, which is a very rude and simple contrivance, but which^ like 
every thing Chinese, answers the purpose remarkably well. The 
press consists of longitudinal beams of considerable thickness, placed 
about a foot and a half, or two feet asunder, with a thick plank at the 
bottom, forming a kind of a trough, and the whole is bound together 
with iron. The tallow is pressed out by means of wedges driven in 
very tightly with stone mallets, and passes through a hole in the bot- 
tom of the press into a tab, which is sunk there to receive it. It is 
now freed from all impurities, and is a semifluid of a beautiful white 
colour, but soon gets solid, and in cold weather is very brittle. The 
inside of the tubs which collect the tallow are sprinkled or dusted over, 
with a fine red earth, M^ell dried, which prevents the tallow from ad- 
hering to their sides. It is thus easily removed in a solid state from 
the tubs, and in this condition the cakes are exposed for sale in the 
market. As the candles made from this vegetable tallow have a ten- 
dency to get soft and to melt in hot weather, they are commonly 
dipped in wax of various colours, as red, green, and yellow. Those 
which are intended for religious purposes are generally very large, and 
finely ornamented with golden characters. 
"The cake, or refuse, which remains after the tallow has been 
pressed out of it, is used for fuel, or to manure the land, and so is the 
refuse from the other part of the seeds from which oil is extracted." 
Pharm. Jour., from Fortuned Wanderings in China. 
Opium Smuggling. — The statements which have been frequently 
made in England, both as regards the smuggling and the smoking of 
opium, are very much exaggerated. When I first went to China, I 
expected to find those merchants who were engaged in this trade little 
else than armed buccaneers, indeed, if I do not mistake, they have 
been represented as characters of this kind on the English stage. In- 
stead of this, the trade is conducted by men of the highest respecta- 
bility, possessed of immense capital, and who are known and esteemed 
as meichants of the first class in every part of the civilized world. 
The trade in opiurn, although contraband, is so unlike what is gene- 
rally called smuggling, that people at a distance are deceived by the 
terra. It may be quite true that its introduction and use are prohibited 
