ish weight. The kind at sixty
dollars does not find a very ready market; the greater part of it is
exported to England. The "bloom" is not met with in trade.

I must mention a sight which I accidentally saw, one evening, upon
the Pearl stream. It was, as I afterwards heard, a thanksgiving
festival in honour of the gods, by the owners of two junks that had
made a somewhat long sea voyage without being pillaged by pirates,
or overtaken by the dangerous typhoon.

Two of the largest flower boats, splendidly illuminated, were
floating gently down the stream. Three rows of lamps were hung
round the upper part of the vessels, forming perfect galleries of
fire; all the cabins were full of chandeliers and lamps, and on the
forecastle large fires were burning out of which rockets darted at
intervals with a loud report, although they only attained the
elevation of a few feet. On the foremost vessel there was a large
mast erected, and hung with myriads of coloured paper lamps up to
its very top, forming a beautiful pyramid. Two boats, abundantly
furnished with torches and provided with boisterous music, preceded
these two fiery masses. Slowly did they float through the darkness
of the night, appearing like the work of fairy hands. Sometimes
they stopped, when high flames, fed with holy perfumed paper,
flickered upwards to the sky.

Perfumed paper, which must be bought from the priests, is burnt at
every opportunity, and very frequently beforehand, after every
prayer. From the trade in this paper the greater portion of the
priests' income is derived.

On several occasions, accompanied by Herr von Carlowitz, I took
short walks in the streets near the factory. I found the greater
pleasure in examining the beautiful articles of Chinese manufacture,
which I could here do at my leisure, as the shops were not so open
as those I saw during my excursion round the walls of Canton, but
had doors and windows like our own, so that I could walk in and be
protected from the pressure of the crowd. The streets, also, in
this quarter were somewhat broader, well paved, and protected with
mats or planks to keep off the burning heat of the sun.

In the neighbourhood of the factory, namely in Fousch-an, where most
of the manufactories are situated, a great many places may be
reached by water, as the streets, like those in Venice, are
intersected by canals. This quarter of Canton, however, is not the
handsomest, because all the warehou