times the city was built
largely on floating pontoons or on piles at the edges of the innumerable
canals and water-courses which formed the thoroughfares, but to meet the
requirements of modern life, well-planned roads and streets have been
constructed in all directions, crossing the old canals at many points and
lined with well-built houses, for the most part of brick, in which the
greater part of the erstwhile riparian population now resides. The centre
of the city is the royal palace (see SIAM), situated in a bend of the river
and enclosed by walls. At a radius of nearly a mile is another wall within
which lies the closely-packed city proper, and beyond which the town
stretches away to the royal parks on the north and to the business quarter,
the warehouses, rice-mills, harbour and docks on the south. The whole town
covers an area of over 10 sq. m. Two companies provide Bangkok with a
complete system of electric tramways, and the streets are lined with
shade-trees and lit by electricity. All over the town are scattered
beautiful Buddhist temples, which with their coloured tile roofs and gilded
spires give it a peculiar and notable appearance. Many fine buildings are
to be seen--the various public offices, the arsenal, the mint, the palaces
of various princes and, in addition to these, schools, hospitals, markets
and Christian churches of many denominations, chiefly Roman Catholic. There
are four railway stations in Bangkok, the termini of the lines which
connect the provinces with the capital.

The climate of Bangkok has without doubt recently changed. It has become
hotter and less humid. Though a minimum temperature below 60deg F. is still
recorded in January and December, a maximum of over 100deg is reached
during the hot weather months and at the beginning of the rains, whereas up
to the year 1900 a maximum of 93deg was considered unusually high. The
cause of this change is not known, but it is attributed to extensive
drainage and removal of vegetation in the immediate neighbourhood of the
town. The annual rainfall amounts to rather over 50 in.

A four-mile reach of the Me Nam, immediately below the city proper, forms
the port of Bangkok. From 250 to 400 yds. broad and of good depth right up
to the banks, the river offers every convenience for the berthing and
loading of ships, though a bar at its mouth, which prevents the passage of
vessels drawing more than 12 ft., necessitates in the case of large ships a
parti