e Peak, two
thousand feet high. We then passed an immense prominence, called the
Half-Way Rock. At a place known as Tiger's Mouth, fortifications were
seen. The country soon becomes flat, with rice fields and fruit farms;
we saw the Whampoa Pagoda and some miles farther on the Honam Pagoda.
Near Canton, we passed another pagoda, and then the white spire of the
French cathedral gleamed out, and our goal was reached. It is a most
interesting river trip, and is unfortunately more often taken at night,
in order to economize time.

The first impression of Canton is one of noise, a fearful din rising and
falling in a kind of cadence, and seeming to proceed largely from an
immense flotilla of boats extending a long way, tied, in a majority of
cases, seven and eight rows deep--craft of all kinds, sampans, junks,
rice boats, freight, each with its quota of humanity, for this is a
veritable floating city, with a life all its own, and almost wholly
independent of the Canton proper which we were about to visit and which
numbered a hundred thousand souls.

We had not anticipated much enjoyment in Canton, having read of the dirt
and smells, but we had not expected to be deafened at our very entrance,
and I think for the time being it dulled the consciousness of this
wonderful spectacle of a floating independent city just at the door of a
city whose name is famous the world over.

* * * * *

CANTON, _March 25th_: We were soon conveyed up a back canal to the
Shameen (the name of the city of foreign concession), where our
quarters, the Hotel Victoria, were located. My room was situated on the
ground floor, the gallery opening on a large garden or court, abloom
with trees and flowers. There was no key to the door, and strangers were
all about me, but the complacent manner in which I met this fact caused
me to realize that my courage was greater than when at Jeypore in
far-away India.

The first afternoon, a jinrikisha ride convinced us that we were in the
most congested city on the face of the globe; a city of streets so
narrow that two chairs could hardly pass each other; a city of strange
sights and more violent contrasts than any we had yet seen. And the
smells!--the English language does not contain words strong enough to
describe them. In the bazar portion of the city we were diverted by the
box-like shops, with their open fronts, and filled with curios, works in
jade, wood, and unique articles o