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The crew consists of two classes: the able seamen, who are called Tow-mo, "heads and eyes;" and the ordinary seamen, or comrades.”

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All these, with the exception of the last class, have sleeping-berths, just large enough to hold one person. Every one is a shareholder, with the privilege of putting a certain quantity of goods on board. The principal object of all is trade, and the working of the junk would seem to be a subordinate point. The crew exercise full control over the vessel, and oppose every measure which they deem injurious to their own interest; so that the captain and pilot are frequently obliged to submit to them. In time of danger the men often lose all courage; and their indecision, with the confusion that attends the absence of discipline, not unfrequently proves the destruction of the junk. Mr. Gutzlaff adds that, although they consider our mode of sailing as something better than their own,* they claim the superiority upon the whole for their native vessels, and would consider it as an imitation of barbarians to alter them. We are persuaded, however, that the risk of trouble and extortion on the part of the government is the chief obstacle to improvement in these respects. The Siamese have already adopted many things from our ships, and two copper-bottomed vessels came lately from Siam to Canton. On this very ground, the local government would not permit them to ascend the river much beyond Whampoa, the European anchorage.

*He was requested by the captain and others to explain the method of finding the latitude and longitude. When he had endeavoured to make them understand the theory, the captain wondered that he could bring (with the sextant) the sun on a level with the horizon; and insisted that by the same process he could "also tell the depth of water." But, being disappointed in this, which would have better suited his purpose, he exclaimed that observations "were entirely useless and truly barbarian!"

The ingenuity of the Chinese is best displayed in their arts and manufactures on shore, and in nothing more conspicuously than the ready and simple modes in which they contrive to abridge labour, and occasionally to avail themselves of a mechanical advantage, without any of the aids of scientific knowledge. "Chance" (says Dr. Abel) “led me to the shop of a blacksmith, the manufacturer of various iron instruments, from a sword to a hoe. This man well understood the modifying properties of heat, and took the fullest advantage of them in all the practical concerns of his business. He was forming a reaping-hook at the time of my visit. A large pair of shears, having one blade fixed in a heavy block of wood, and the other furnished with a long handle to serve as a lever, stood beside him. Bringing a piece of metal of the necessary dimensions from the forge at a white heat, he placed it between the blades of this instrument, and cut it into shape with equal ease and despatch."

In exemplification of the same point, we may quote another instance from the journal of Dr. Abel, who was a very intelligent observer. "A quantity of oil, recently taken from the mill (where it had been pressed), and contained in a wide shallow vessel, was continually agitated by a large copper pestle, with which a lad, for some particular purpose, gently struck its surface. The fatigue that would otherwise have arisen from the weight of the pestle, and uniform motion of the arm in using it, was prevented by the following very simple contrivance : a small bow of bamboo being fastened to the ceiling immediately over the vessel containing the oil, the pestle was attached to its string, and, thus suspended, it received from the slightest touch an adequate impulse, while the elasticity of the bow gave it the necessary recoil." In this manner it was worked by a young boy,

who otherwise would not have had strength to manage the pestle.

With regard to some of their industrious arts, it may be a question whether they are original and indigenous, or borrowed from India; though, with the known ingenuity of the Chinese, the presumption is in favour of the former. In cleaning cotton, they make use of a double process, in most respects similar to that known in India. The machine for freeing the cotton from its seed consists of two wooden cylinders, placed horizontally one above the other, and very nearly in contact. These are put in motion by a wheel and treadle, and the cotton, being applied to one side of the crevice, is turned over by the revolution of the cylinders or rollers to the opposite; while the seeds which are too large to enter between them fall to the ground. The cotton is then freed from knots and dirt by the same process as in Hindoostan. A very elastic bow with a tight string is held by the carder over a heap of cotton-wool. Pulling down the string with some force under a portion of the cotton, by means of a wooden instrument in his right hand, he suddenly allows the bow to recoil, and the vibration thus continually kept up scatters and loosens the cotton, separating it into fine white flocks, without breaking the fibre.

In some other instances, and indeed in most, no doubt can exist of the originality of invention; and the chief of these are the manufactures of silk and porcelain, which will presently be noticed. Their mode of making candles from the seed of the croton sebiferum is peculiar. This seed, which is contained in a three-lobed berry, is surrounded by a white substance not unlike tallow in consistence. It is first of all ground or crushed in an iron rut, which forms the arc of a circle, and in which a heavy wheel, suspended from a beam above, works back

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wards and forwards. When ground, it is heated over a fire to melt the vegetable grease, and then subjected to the press. The object is sometimes gained by boiling the

[graphic]

bruised seed in water, and skimming the grease from the top. As this substance easily melts, the candles made from it are coated on the outside with wax. They burn rapidly, having a large wick, and give a very bad light

Cleaning Cotton.

with a great deal of smoke. The mode of procuring the oil from the berry of the Camellia oleifera is nearly the same as in the case of, the croton. The seed is first crushed by pounding or grinding, and then put over the fire in bags, which are afterwards removed to the press. This oil is of a rather fine and delicate quality, and used in cookery, like olive-oil in the south of Europe.

In various branches of the manufacture of metals the Chinese possess considerable skill. They have the art of casting iron in very thin plates, and of repairing vessels thus constructed, by means of a small furnace and blowpipe with which an itinerant workman goes his rounds. Their wrought-iron work is not so neat as our own, but extremely efficient. In point of cheapness, too, we excel them in this article; and it seems likely that if Chinese models of iron implements, and tools of every kind, were brought home and exactly imitated at Birmingham and Sheffield, without any attempts at improvement in the general shape or adaptation, they might become an article of commerce. As it is, the Chinese only import our iron in bars, and work it up themselves. A conformity to

their own native models should guide the preparation of nearly all articles for the Chinese market. They will scarcely look at what has a foreign fashion about it, even though it should be better than their own; always excepting, of course, clocks and watches, of which they admit the utility, but which they have now begun to manufacture for themselves, importing the springs and some other portions of the works from England.

copper,

Their white which has much of the appearance of silver, has a close grain, and takes a good polish. It is an alloy of copper, zinc, and iron, with a little silver, and occasionally some nickel. When in the state of ore, it is said to be powdered, mixed with charcoal-dust, and

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