a teapot, and should the leak increase would not enable us to free the ship; therefore Mr. French made an excellent pump of some boards, which, together with that worked by the engine, could keep under any leak that might reasonably be expected.

26th.-Fine day, with smooth water. We had made great progress. At noon passed Cape Webuck and succeeded in taking a photograph of an iceberg. The night came on overcast and rainy.

27th. Thick weather, with rain. Ran past Domino, where we had ordered our coal schooner to meet us, and had to turn back. At noon we arrived there. It is merely an anchorage between two islands where some fishermen have erected huts to clean and dry their fish. There are excellent fishing grounds in the neighbourhood. We saw a great number of boats employed, and obtained some fish from a boat that came alongside: gave the men whiskey, bibles, and tracts in exchange, for which they seemed very thankful.

28th.-Went on shore with Captain Murray at one of the islands which is about fifteen miles from the mainland. A few small shrubs and rich mosses compose the vegetable kingdom. We caught a few small trout. We went into a fisherman's hut before going on board: found his wife and grown up daughters, who were delighted to see us. They live in one of the bays of Newfoundland, and come every spring to these shores, and remain until the beginning of November. They were very sorry that we did not stay for Sunday, in order that they might go on board to church. They offered us cake and spruce beer, but I positively was unable to drink the spruce beer-although I made several attempts to do so-which I fear was put down to want of cordiality. We went to sea in the evening, and as we had not taken all the coal out of our schooner (the Tickler), we took her in tow.

Sunday, 29th.-Passed Belle Isle. Wind fresh, with heavy sea. Noon, kept away for Chateau Harbour, and about four p.m. let go our anchor.

Went on shore in the evening, and the Rev. Professor Barnard read prayers in a fisherman's hut, which was much too small for those who wished to join us.

This is a very fine harbour and completely landlocked, with a small stream running into it at the head, which is filled with large trout; but the flies and musquitoes are so numerous that it was impossible to remain on shore, so after catching a few very large ones, we were fairly driven away and glad to escape from our tormentors.

We remained until Tuesday before the gale was over, and then a fog came on; but in the afternoon we steamed out, leaving our coal schooner (cleared) behind.

2nd.-Fair wind and weather. Cape Ray on the beam. Arrived at Sydney at eleven p.m.

3rd. The U.S. coast surveying steamer Bibb completed her coaling and proceeded to sea, and then I parted company with my American cousins, who had treated me with kindness and hospitality and

showed so much attention and civility to me that I shall ever look back with extreme pleasure to the fortunate occurrence that brought us together. On arriving at Quebec, viâ Halifax, I found myself just in time for all the gay proceedings consequent on the Prince's visit.

[The Roman figures in the foregoing refer to the photographs which will appear in the American report.-ED.]

A PEEP AT PEKIN.

Pekin more than any other city of the world may be compared with Paris. There is, in fact, a remarkable similarity between them. They are both seated in the northern part of the empire, thus serving as a barrier to incursion from the North and tending always to progress southward. It contains about two millions of inhabitants,much about the same as Paris does now. Pekin has for its port Tien-Tsin, where the large trading junks reach; and the similarity between the two cities becomes still more striking when it is considered that the capital of the Chinese empire as well as Paris are nearly at the same distance from the sea, nearly in the same latitude, and at the two opposite parts of the old continents.

The environs of Pekin are wretched. Seen from its eastern side, the view of the city is said to be imposing, and the appearance of numerous edifices standing in the midst of foliage is very effective on the horizon. But seen from the West, Pekin more resembles a forest than a city, so much does it abound with gardens and umbrageous ground. Every one knows that the Chinese are the first of gardeners and delight in surrounding themselves with trees, notwithstanding the little space they have for them. On the North the walls of Pekin are very high, for the Chinese had long to fear the Mantchoos, who subsequently possessed themselves of the whole empire. The construction of the walls is here and there very remarkable, and the gateways are formed of marble and ornamented with statues.

Pekin has certainly a most winning appearance when seen from the outside; but no sooner is the interior of it gained than that impression is gone. The sculptures are placed in courts, but they are concealed by a mass of foliage; and if one secks those parts of the city that contain the dwellings of the merchants or the lesser mandarins, nothing but streets are found formed of ugly looking houses with cracked walls, and yet filled with merchandize, and separated by filthy passages where you are elbowed about by crowds of Chinese

and their coolies.

It matters little to the voyager whether a Chinese city is ill or well constructed. What interests him and strikes him above everything is the display of character, and for this Pekin is remarkable. Badly

enough as the houses in general are constructed, there is something about them that particularly catches the eye. The diversity of their character and the variety of their colours is particularly attractive to the visitor. Some of them are painted red, others, again, are as blue as the sky; and these are varnished, while those are gilt!

The northern part of Pekin forms a quadrilateral figure, about twenty-seven English miles in circuit, and is divided into two towns: the imperial town, or King-tchhing, and the exterior one, or Waitching. These figures will convey a tolerable idea of Pekin.

Nei-Tchhing.

Hoany-Tchhing.

King-tchhing.

Inaccessible
Town.

Imperial Town.

Interior Town.

Wai-tchhing.

Exterior Town.

The imperial town forms a complete quadrilateral, round which is the exterior town, another quadrilateral, the residence of merchants and artisans. The imperial town encloses the forbidden or sacred red town, which contains the residence of the Emperor; in whose palace, as well as in the adjacent buildings, the most rigorous construction has been observed. Everything is scrupulously regular. There is not a stone without its fellow of the same character and dimensions. The very gates by which this part is entered have all a particular signification, established by the most rigorous laws of etiquette, which is

as powerful as law itself in China. There is a gate by which the annual calendars are distributed to the people, who take good care to pass out one at a time by another. There is a room in which the genuflexions of more or less humility are made by rules of mathematical accuracy. Among the sumptuous apartments there is also a spacious historical gallery, where the Emperor Khiauloung showed himself, in 1585, a good prince. He made some thousand old men over ninety years of age dine with him, but all of them standing.

Few Europeans, it is well known, have penetrated within the walls of King-tching. Nevertheless, P. Astier, a French Jesuit, who obtained permission to visit it, has given a curious description of it. He has drawn a wonderful picture of the imperial palace. According to him the eyes of the visitor are perpetually dazzled by gold and precious stones. The gardens are in keeping with the palace of the sovereign. The lakes, which have a marvellous effect, are scattered over with vessels, wherein Chinese art has concentrated all its power of absurdities: for art in the extreme East is less the production of the beautiful, such as we consider it, than a sort of learned lucubration, timid yet offensive, and replete with fanciful notions. What pleases us in architecture is its noble simplicity, where there is little of the ornamental; but in China the more the buildings are bedizened with colour and overloaded with ornament the more they please the eye of the Chinese. Thus nothing surpasses the Emperor's palace.

In the midst of a lake, which is about a mile across, is seen a rocky islet, surmounted by a superb palace which has more than a hundred apartments. The neighbouring heights are covered with aromatic plants and dwarf trees, and their summits are crowned by kiosques and pavilions.

Hoang-tching is nearly all occupied by the imperial gardens, most spacious, beautiful, and no less useful: that of mulberry trees is nothing else than an immense magnaneria. There is a temple in it, dedicated to the protecting genius of insects, where the great mandarins, accompanied by the ladies of the court, condescend to rear

silkworms!

If we leave these magnificent gardens for the southern town, we find nothing there but streets not paved and houses badly arranged, and generally without an upper story. The crowd of passengers is enormous, and to move among them most difficult. Palanquins, persons on horseback and on foot thread their way with difficulty between the stalls which project from the houses and make the road still narrower than it really is. Wells, also, in the middle of the street serve to impede the circulation, for the atmosphere is infected with the exhalations from these receptacles, heaped up with filth. Nevertheless, the shops give a picturesque effect to the scene, even by the variety and quantity of their merchandize. Their owners, unable to display it all in their shops, spread it in front of them on a kind of mat extending tolerably out from them. These mats, ornamented with gilding, paintings, and ribbons of all colours, bear inscriptions in gilt characters indicating the nature of the merchandise

for sale; and these again are enlivened by a variety of lanterns, formed of horn, muslin, silk, and paper, of every shape and pattern.

The principal street is named "perpetual repose." It is said to be 200 feet wide. There are no remarkable squares in Pekin, but a considerable number of triumphal arches, forming handsome terminations to the streets. The handsomest temples are those of Yung-ko-kuang and Thang-tseu, dedicated to Buddha or Fo.

The Emperor pays an annual visit to the temple of Thien-than (the Eminence of Heaven) in great splendour for the purpose of making sacrifices to heaven. Not far from it is the Temple of Agriculture, where another important ceremony is performed annually at the beginning of spring. Here the Emperor himself takes the handle of the plough and cuts the first furrow. This festival, which is one of the grandest in China, is also a proof of the wisdom with which such institutions of the Chinese empire have been established.

Pekin contains many monuments dedicated to science and literature; also an observatory and establishments similar to our medical halls and colleges. The principal one is that of history and literature, where those are examined who aspire to the office of Mandarin. On the whole, Pekin is rather a city of etiquette and seminaries than one of luxuries, rather one of science than war, and more a focus of commerce than one of industry.

[The foregoing was in our printer's hands before the recent telegram of China affairs arrived. We therefore append the following in reference to the flight of the Emperor from Pekin.]

The Moniteur de l'Armée gives the following details of the place to which the Emperor of China has fled:-Moukden is not in Tartary properly so called, but in Mandchouria. The country of the Mandchoux forms part of the interior provinces of the empire, and comprises three departments. The first is that of Ching-King, having for its chief town Moukden or Foung-Thean; the second, Ghirin, with a chief town of the same name; and the third is SakhalienOula Khoton, with Tsi-Tsikar as its capital. It is in the country of the Mandchoux that are to be found the most devoted partisans of the Tartar-Mandchoux dynasty, which effected the conquest of China in 1644, and still reigns over that vast empire. Mandchouria is separated from the provinee of Petchi-li, in which Pekin is situated, by that of Laotang. Between the two last named provinces are the high mountains of Than-Yen, which are of difficult access, and must have protected the retreat of the Emperor. Moukden is about 250 miles from Pekin. If the Emperor had retired into Tartary properly so called, he would have had to make a journey across Mongolia of 625 miles, and pass through some provinces the inhabitants of which are completely hostile to him.

We may add, in order to explain the English despatch, that at Hong Kong, Shanghae, and in the ports on the coast inhabited by Europeans, all the Chinese possessions which have been formerly conquered by the Tartars and by the Tartar-Mandchoux-such as Mon