n Heaven and Earth. The sea was smoked glass:
reddish grey islands lay upon it under fog-banks that hovered fifty feet
above our heads. The squat sails of junks danced for an instant like
autumn leaves in the breeze and disappeared, and there was no solidity
in the islands against which the glassy levels splintered in snow. The
steamer groaned and grunted and howled because she was so damp and
miserable, and I groaned also because the guide-book said that Hong-Kong
had the finest harbour in the world, and I could not see two hundred
yards in any direction. Yet this ghost-like in-gliding through the
belted fog was livelily mysterious, and became more so when the movement
of the air vouchsafed us a glimpse of a warehouse and a derrick, both
apparently close aboard, and behind them the shoulder of a mountain. We
made our way into a sea of flat-nosed boats all manned by most muscular
humans, and the Professor said that the time to study the Chinese
question was now. We, however, were carrying a new general to these
parts, and nice, new, well-fitting uniforms came off to make him
welcome; and in the contemplation of things too long withheld from me I
forgot about the Pigtails. Gentlemen of the mess-room, who would wear
linen coats on parade if you could, wait till you have been a month
without seeing a patrol-jacket or hearing a spur go _ling-a-ling_, and
you will know why civilians want you always to wear uniform. The
General, by the way, was a nice General. He did not know much about the
Indian Army or the ways of a gentleman called Roberts, if I recollect
aright; but he said that Lord Wolseley was going to be
Commander-in-Chief one of these days on account of the pressing needs of
our Army. He was a revelation because he talked about nothing but
English military matters, which are very, very different from Indian
ones, and are mixed up with politics.

All Hong-Kong is built on the sea face; the rest is fog. One muddy road
runs for ever in front of a line of houses which are partly Chowringhee
and partly Rotherhithe. You live in the houses, and when wearied of
this, walk across the road and drop into the sea, if you can find a
square foot of unencumbered water. So vast is the accumulation of
country shipping, and such is its dirtiness as it rubs against the bund,
that the superior inhabitants are compelled to hang their boats from
davits above the common craft, who are greatly disturbed by a multitude
of steam-launches. Th