Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/230

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stream, however, although a broad one, is not navigable for large vessels beyond the town of Shui-Kow, which stands on its left bank, at the foot of dangerous rapids, one hundred miles from the coast. The entrance to the Min by the south channel is nearly opposite to a group of islands known as the "White Dogs." There are, however, two other channels now in use; the most northerly between Sharp Peak Island and the mainland, and only available for vessels of light draught ; while the middle channel to the south of the Sharp Peak, has a breadth of about three-quarters of a mile, and is nearly three fathoms deep at low tide. The south channel is not quite so roomy, nor yet so direct, except for vessels trading south. A lighthouse built on the "White Dogs" proves of great advantage to the port. The Kin-pai and Min-Ngan passes, through which the anchorage is gained, recalled the approaches to the Pearl river. The harbour is about thirty miles from the mouth of the river, and is wide enough to contain the entire merchant fleet of China. This spot is called '* Pagoda Anchorage," and takes that name from a small island crowned with an old pagoda, which forms a conspicuous object in the landscape. But for this purely Chinese edifice, one might readily suppose oneself transported suddenly to a scene on the river Clyde. There stand the houses of a small foreign settlement, and yonder are a dock, tall chimneys and rows of workshops, whence the clang of steam-hammers and the hum of engines may be heard. Here, in fact, is the Foochow Arsenal, on a piece of level ground redeemed from an old swamp, and looking in the distance like an English manufacturing village. This was destroyed by the French in 1884, and has since been reconstituted. A French mission under the direction of M. Doyere has just been intrusted with its reorganisation. But side by side with the