aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

134 ABOUND THE WORLD.
junk-shapecl boat, — the youngest, a child, strapped to the
mother's back, Indian fashion. Both grandmother and
mother aided in rowing the "sam-pan." These famihes
know no other homes.
Hong Kong, in the Chinese language, means " Incense
Harbor ; " referring to the junks and proas, that here discharge
their cargoes of fragrant spices.
THE FIRST OUTLOOK.
The city is crowded. The country presents every conceivable
shade of landscape, — rich valleys, alluvial plains,
high table-lands, and magnificent mountains. Stretching
along the coast-cities, canals, to quite an extent, take the
place of roads. Instead of locks, they have what are termed
"mud-slides," using cables of bamboo, and windlasses.
Men, instead of machinery, turn them. Multitudes are
bom, eat, sleep, live, and die in these boats. Every thing
looks un-American. The people are mainly agricultural,
cultivating almost every available foot of the soil. Every
object seen indicates an overburdened population. The
canals swarm with boats, the shops with artisans, the roads
with pedestrians, and the fields with hard-toiling workmen.
It is work or starve in China.
The empire proper has eighteen provinces, eacli
is divided into about ten divisions called Fu; and these
of which
still further divided into Hien. Politically speaking, these
correspond somewhat to our districts, counties, towns, only
they are much larger than with us in America. The empire
contains five millions of square miles. Each provincial capital
averages about one million of inhabitants. The great
Chinese Empire numbers nearly five hundred millions, — onC'
third of the whole human race.
hundred walled cities.
are
It has one thousand seven