the Five Genii, of which I have spoken
before, and in which are to be seen the five rams,
changed into stone. Yungtsing-mun, the
Gate of Eternal Purity, is eternally
surrounded by very impure things; and,
moreover, is the gate which leads to the Field of
Blood, the place where criminals are publicly
decapitated.

The gates are guarded by a few soldiers;
closed at an early hour in the evening, for
the night, and opened again at dawn of day.
No  one is allowed to pass in or out during
the night, except on special occasions; but a
small fee will usually open the door, yet like
our own fee to a railway-porter, always
exposes the receiver of it to punishment.

These gates are, however, not the only
entrances to the city, for there are several
canals and ditches, by which are conveyed a
great many articles of merchandise, and
visitors, and which are called by the
Chinese veins of the city. One of the largest
canals extends along the whole length of the
wall on the east, and there is another on the
west side. Between these two, and
communicating with them, is a third canal, which
runs beside the wall, dividing the new city
from the old, so that a boat can enter on the
west, pass through the town, and go out at the
eastern side. Other canals are in the eastern
and the western suburbs; there is one also in
the southern. Into these large channels a
great number of smaller ones flow. Over
them all are thrown many small bridges;
some built of stone. Several of them are
arched, but more frequently they are formed
of large slabs, laid horizontally from side to
side, supported by stone walls.

There are also several tanks or reservoirs;
but none of them are of great size. Good
water is plentifully furnished from several
springs which break out north of the city,
both within and without the walls. Wells,
also, are numerous; and there is use made of
rain-water, which many prefer for tea.

A Chinese catalogue of the streets of Canton
contains above six hundred names; and
we find the Golden Flower Street, a Flower
Street, a Golden Street, several Dragons'
Streets, as the Flying Dragon's Street, the
Martial Dragon's Street, the Straight Street of
Benevolence, and others which are too
indelicate to be translated. The Chinese artist,
drawing the map of the city, now before me,
has drawn all the streets very straight; but,
although, there are several long streets, most
of them are short and crooked, and they vary
in width from two to sixteen feet; but,
generally, they are about six to eight feet wide.
They are everywhere flagged with large
stones, chiefly granite.

We find in Canton in the buildings as
great a variety of structure and style, and as
fair specimens of Chinese taste and art, as
can be found in the whole empire. This
taste is, indeed, very different from ours.
Lord Macartney said of the Chinese
architecture: "Though it is totally unlike any other,
and irreconcileable to our rules, yet it is
perfectly consistent with its own; and, upon the
whole, it often produces a most pleasing
effect—as we sometimes see a person, without
a single good feature in his face, have,
nevertheless, a very agreeable countenance."
In all the Chinese buildings there is not to
be mistaken the original idea of the tent,
which, probably, was the dwelling of the
remote ancestors of the Chinese in their
migration eastward. It was their only model
for a dwelling. The roof, concave on the
upper side, and the verandah with its slender
columns, reproduce perfectly the original
features of the tent. In fact, the whole
fabric of ordinary buildings, light and slender,
retains the mark of primeval simplicity.

A large part of the city and suburbs is
built on low ground or flats; special care,
therefore, is requisite in order to build on a
solid basis. Near the river, and in all the
loose or muddy situations, houses are raised
on wooden piles, which make their foundations
nearly as secure as brick or stone could make
them. We have in Europe cities so built—
for example, Amsterdam. The magnificent
town-hall there, now the palace of the king
when residing in the city, has been built on
several thousands of masts rammed into the
loose ground. In Canton sometimes the piles
rise above the surface of the ground, and then
the wooden buildings rest directly on them;
but, in other instances, the piles reach only
within a few feet of the surface, and the
remaining part of the foundation is of mud,
or brick, or stone. When this is done, the
walls of the houses are entirely baseless, or
have only a slender foundation of mud, of
which also their walls are composed; and
hence in severe rain-storms and overflowings
of the river, such as frequently happen, many
of the walls are overthrown.

Three-fifths of the whole city, however, are
of brick. Most of the Tartars in the old city
live in mud houses. Stone and wood are not
very extensively used for walls; gateways
and door-posts are of stone, the columns,
beams, and rafters are of wood. Many of the
floors of houses and temples are of indurated
mud, and marble-flags are sometimes used
for the same purpose, often also tiles. These
latter, when made very thin, are used for
roofs. They are laid on the rafters " in rows,
alternately concave and convex, and forming
ridges and furrows, luted by a cement of
clay." You may, however, see very frequently
such roofs on old houses on the European,
continent. The tiles are sometimes glazed
and coloured. The windows are small, and
supplied seldom with glass; paper, mica,
shell, or some similar translucent substance,
takes its place. Very little iron is employed
in building houses.

All these materials for building are
procurable here, at moderate prices, and in great
abundance. Wood—commonly a species of