alls of the
city are of brick, on a foundation of sandstone and granite, are 20 ft.
thick, and rise to an average height of 25 ft. On the north side the
wall rises to include a hill which it there meets with, and on the other
three sides the city is surrounded by a ditch, which is filled by the
rising tide, when, for a time, the revolting mass of filth that lies in
its bed is concealed from view. There are twelve outer gates--four of
which are in the partition wall, and two water gates, through which
boats pass from east to west across the new city. The gates are all shut
at night, and in the daytime a guard is stationed at them to preserve
order. The streets, amounting in all to upwards of 600, are long,
straight, and very narrow. They are mostly paved and are not as dirty as
those of some of the other cities in the empire; in fact, considering
the habits of the people and the inattention of the government to these
matters, Canton may be said to be a well-governed and comparatively
cleanly city. The houses are in general small, seldom consisting of more
than two storeys, the ground floor serving as a shop, and the rest of
the house, with the court behind, being used as a warehouse. Here are to
be found the productions of every quarter of the globe; and the
merchants are in general attentive, civil, expert men of business, and
generally assiduous.

The temples and public buildings of Canton are numerous, but none of
them presents features worthy of special remark. There are two pagodas
near the west gate of the old city, and 124 temples, pavilions, halls
and other religious edifices within the city. One of the pagodas called
the _Kwangtah_, or Plain Pagoda, is a Mahommedan mosque, which was
erected by the Arabian voyagers who were in the habit of visiting Canton
about ten centuries ago. It rises in an angular tapering tower to the
height of 160 ft. The other is an octagonal pagoda of nine storeys, 170
ft. in height, and was first erected more than thirteen centuries ago. A
Buddhist temple at Honan, opposite the foreign factories, and named in
Chinese _Hai-ch'wang-sze_, or the Temple of the Ocean Banner, is one of
the largest in Canton. Its grounds, which cover about seven acres, are
surrounded by a wall, and are divided into courts, gardens and a
burial-ground, where are deposited the ashes of priests, whose bodies
are burned. There are about 175 priests connected with this
establishment. Besides the _Hai-ch'wang-sze_ t