low that the turn of the
propeller stirs up the greyish-brown mud from the bottom.

Victoria is the chief town of Hong Kong, and contains nearly the half of
the population, which amounts to 440,000 souls, most of them Chinese.

There are five important points on the sea-route to the Far
East--Gibraltar, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, and Hong Kong--and all of
them are in the hands of England.

Hong Kong has been a British Crown Colony since 1842, and it is now an
extraordinarily important port. Vessels with an aggregate tonnage of
nearly 20 millions pass through Hong Kong annually, and the little
island surpasses in this respect even London, Hamburg, and New York.
Regular lines of steamers connect Hong Kong with countless ports in
Asia, America, Europe, and Australia, and the trade of the port is
immense. It is also a station for the east Asiatic squadron of the Royal
Navy--with fine docks and berths, a coal depot, arsenal, and barracks.

Ninety miles north-west of Hong Kong lies the second city of China,
Canton (Plate XVI.). It stands near the mouths of two rivers which give
access to the interior of the country, and Canton is therefore an
important commercial town, surpassed only by Shanghai. The famous
Chinese silk is exported from Canton in larger quantities than from any
other town, and the industries of silk-weaving, porcelain, and other
manufactures are flourishing. Canton is one of the thirty-seven Chinese
"treaty ports"--that is, those which are open to foreign commerce. It
has 900,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of the southernmost of the
eighteen provinces of China proper and the residence of a viceroy. Its
streets are so narrow that no wheeled vehicle can pass through them. A
large part of the inhabitants live on boats moored to posts on the
river. A railway 1200 miles long connects Canton with the capital of the
empire, Peking.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] This is the vessel which was wrecked on the coast of Morocco, near
Cape Spartel, on December 13, 1911, having the Duke and Duchess of Fife
(Princess Royal) on board.

XII

CHINA[14]

TO SHANGHAI

From Hong Kong the _Delhi_ ploughs her way along the Chinese coast, and
next day (October 31) we are right out in the track of the north-east
monsoon. The sea is high and dead against us, and the wind is so strong
that we can hardly go up on deck. It becomes steadily cooler as we
advance northwards.

To the east we have now the large island of Formosa,