ever being fired, and in all probability the vessels themselves will rot in the river without ever putting out to sea.
Before concluding this enumeration—already long, though very much abridged—of the structures forming an integral part of the city of boats, I must speak of the European craft and junks which are seen at anchor in the Tchou-kiang. The European flotilla is generally moored in the middle of the stream, opposite the factories, and in the deepest part of the river. It consists of ships of small tonnage, belonging to English, American, and Portuguese merchants, resident at Macao or Hongkong, and which frequently make the voyage from Canton to the two Christian towns. You perceive, likewise, in the midst of these examples of nautical art in the West, Macao lorchas, employed in a kind of coasting trade, and a few little boats which connect, so to say, the factories with the fine roads of Whampoa, which I have previously designated a branch of the port of Canton.
As for the large junks, which are freighted with the productions of the entire empire, they are stationed high up the river; you may frequently see several hundred at one and the same point. Such a collection of strange vessels is not the least curious sight which the Tchou-kiang offers. They are large floating masses, with little grace about them, shaped nearly after the fashion of old Dutch ships. They
