and silkworms in Che-keang, confirms the usual Chinese accounts, by saying that "the houses in which the worms are reared are placed generally in the centre of each plantation, in order that they may be removed as far as possible from every kind of noise; experience having taught them that a sudden shout, or the bark of a dog, is destructive of the young worms. A whole brood has sometimes perished by a thunder-storm." The chambers are so contrived as to admit of the use of artificial heat when necessary. Great care is taken of the sheets of paper on which the multitudes of eggs have been laid by the silkworm-moths; and the hatching of these eggs is either retarded or advanced, by the application of cold or heat according to circumstances, so as to time the simultaneous exit of the young worms exactly to the period when the tender spring leaves of the mulberry are most fit for their nourishment.

They proportion the food very exactly to the young worms by weighing the leaves, which in the first instance are cut, but afterwards, as the insects become larger, are given to them whole. The greatest precautions are observed in regulating the temperature of the apartments, and in keeping them clean, quiet, and free from smells. The worms are fed upon a species of small hurdles of basket-work, strewed with leaves, which are constantly shifted for the sake of cleanliness, the insects readily moving off to a fresh hurdle with new leaves, as the scent attracts them. In proportion to their growth, room is afforded to them by increasing the number of these hurdles, the worms of one being shifted to three, then to six, and so on until they reach their greatest size. The hurdles, as well as the rest of the apparatus, were sent from Canton to St. Helena for the use of the Company's establishment there. When the worms have cast their

several skins, reached their greatest size, and assumed a transparent yellowish colour, they are removed into places divided into compartments, preparatory to their spinning.

In the course of a week after the commencement of spinning, the silken cocoons are complete, and it now becomes necessary to take them in hand before the pupæ turn into moths, which would immediately bore their way out, and spoil the cocoons. When a certain number, therefore, have been laid aside for the sake of future eggs, the pupa in the bulk of the cocoons are killed by being placed in jars under layers of salt and leaves, with a complete exclusion of air. They are subsequently placed in moderately warm water, which dissolves the glutinous substance that binds the silk together, and the filament is wound off upon reels. This is put up in bundles of a certain size and weight, and either becomes an article of merchandise under the name of raw silk," or is subjected to the loom, and manufactured into various stuffs, for home or for foreign consumption. Notwithstanding the apparent simplicity of their looms, they will imitate exactly the newest and most elegant patterns from England or France. The Chinese particularly excel in the production of damasks and flowered satins. Their crape has never yet been perfectly imitated; and they make a species of washing silk, called at Canton ponge, which becomes more soft as it is longer used.

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With regard to the porcelain of the Chinese, it is indisputably the original from which the similar manufactures of Europe were borrowed. The first porcelain-furnace on record was in Keang sy, the same province where it is now principally made, about the commencement of the seventh century of our era; but the famous furnaces of King-te-chin, just to the eastward of the Poyang lake, were not established until about A.D. 1000. In the pro

gress of the last embassy through the country, we observed that the largest quantities of porcelain were exhibited for sale at Nanchang-foo, just to the southward of the lake, from whence there is a water communication with Kingtě-chin. The Chinese have a printed history of the furnaces at this place, contained in four volumes; but the main difficulty, in a translation, would be to identify the various substances, used in the manufacture, with the names by which they are distinguished in the original work. It is well known that the chief merit of the Chinese ware consists in its hardness, in the fineness of the fracture, and in the resistance which it offers to heat without cracking. The better kinds have never yet been surpassed in point of substance; but as regards the painting and gilding, they must yield to the productions of England and the continent.

The principal ingredients employed in the manufacture of the porcelain of China have been pretty well ascertained. It was soon discovered that the Kao-lin, mentioned by Père Dentrecolles in Du Halde, was the felspar clay, or porcelain earth of Europe. The neighbourhood of the Poyang lake was observed, by our embassies, to abound in those disintegrating granite rocks which supply the largest quantity of that material. The detailed account of the manufacture by Dentrecolles was calculated to convey little information regarding the real substances used by the Chinese; but some specimens of the various materials, which were subsequently sent to France from China, enabled our neighbours to imitate the ware, and establish the commencement of the manufacture. It has been satisfactorily shown by Marsden, that the word porcelain, or porcellana, was applied by the Europeans to the ware of China, from the resemblance of its fine polished surface to that of the univalve shell so named; while the

shell itself derived its appellation from the curved or gibbous shape of its upper surface, which was thought to resemble the raised back of a porcella, or little hog.*

Silica and alumine, or flint and clay, being the principal constituents of all chinaware, the Kao-lin of Dentrecolles is the clay, and the pě-tun-tse is the silica. The following facts are pretty well ascertained from the Chinese. They state that Kao-lin, or, more correctly, Kaou-ling, which means "lofty ridge" (probably where the granite is most exposed to disintegration), is mixed with small shining particles, meaning the mica, with which it naturally abounds. Of the pě-tun-tse, they observe that it is white, hard, and with a smooth surface. The former material is said to require less labour than the latter, or, in other words, it is a soft clay, while the latter is a very hard and stony substance. The Kaou-ling is dug from the mountain, "wherever the outer surface of the earth is of a reddish colour, and abounds with shining particles." The pě-tun-tse is pounded with difficulty in mortars, the pestles of which are worked by a stream, and the powder being reduced to a fine paste by mixture with water, it is made up into cakes fit for use, and sold to the manufacturers. The Chinese say that the former material derives strength from the latter, which is obtained from the hardest rocks. Another substance used by them is hua-she, "slippery stone," which is steatite or soapstone; and a fourth is shě-kaou, alabaster or gypsum, which they say is used in the painting process after it is burnt. On approaching the neighbourhood of King-tě-chin from the eastward, the late Sir George Staunton observed several excavations, made in extracting from the sides of the adjoining hills the pě-tun-tse. He says it was a species of fine granite, in which the quartz (or silica) bore the largest proportion.

* Marco Polo, p. 428, Note.

of

He afterwards remarked some quarries, out of which were dug stones beautifully white and shining; they consisted, he says, of quartz in its purest state. There can be no doubt, therefore, respecting the two principal ingredients of Chinese porcelain. It would seem that Kaou-ling is the "growan clay," and pe-tun-tse the "growan stone Cornwall; and the granite mountains by which the Poyang lake is surrounded afford an abundance of both those materials. There is another manufactory at Chaou-kingfoo, to the west of Canton, which supplies the limited demand of the European and Indian trade; but it is greatly inferior in reputation to King-tě-chin.

The vitreous glaze of Chinese porcelain is obtained by the union of the pounded pě-tun-tse, or silica, with the ashes of fern, abounding on the same steep hills that afford the other materials. The glassy combination of flint and alkali, called by chemists a silicate, is well known to give to porcelain its polished surface. The Chinese call this "varnish" or "oil," with an allusion to their lackered or japanned ware. In proof of the difficulty of acquiring any real information from the descriptions of Dentrecolles, we may quote his odd observation, that "this oil or varnish is got from a very hard stone, which is not very surprising, since it is stated that stones are formed of the salts and oils of the earth." This was written more than a hundred years since, and seems to mean the combination of the powdered quartz with the alkali in the formation of the glaze.

In the third part of Dr. Morrison's Dictionary, under the head of "porcelain," are some extracts from the history of the furnaces at King-te-chin. It is observed that Kaouling is the name of a hill on the east side of the place of manufacture, and that the earth procured from thence was the property of four different families, whose names were