o those of our own men, except that the facings,
instead of being gold, were of that peculiar shade of blue so much in
favour among the Chinese. The ordinary tars wore the conventional
dark--blue, baggy trousers, and a blouse of the same colour, cut to a
"V" shape at the neck in front, but minus the collar at the back which
European seamen have adopted, while the skirt of the blouse was allowed
to hang loose outside the trousers, instead of being tucked in. The
only essential difference between the Celestial seamen's uniform and our
own lay in the cap, which, instead of being flat and dark-blue in
colour, was of the conventional Chinese shape and white in colour, with
a knob of some soft material on the top. Their pigtails were rolled up
and tucked into the crown of these caps--or, more correctly, hats.
Their arms consisted of rifles--which, Frobisher noted, were of
widely-different patterns, most of them obsolete, although all were
breech-loaders--and a kind of cutlass, somewhat similar to the British
naval weapon, but with a two-handed hilt, and only a small, circular
piece of polished brass for a guard.

The soldiery, however, smart though they were, in no way resembled those
of European armies. Their uniforms, all similar of course, consisted of
identically the same hat as that worn in the Navy; a white jacket, very
long and very loose, with baggy sleeves, the collar, front, and skirt,
and the edges of the cuffs all edged with broad Chinese-blue braid; and
short and baggy trousers, gathered just below the knee, and tucked into
a kind of "puttee" legging, consisting of a long wrapping of white
canvas. The trousers were also white, with a Chinese-blue stripe of
broad braid down the outside--and, strangely enough, the inside also--of
the leg. The boots were eminently sensible and serviceable, and were
something like the Red Indian's moccasin, the uppers being made of two
thicknesses of deer hide, which were kept on the foot by means of a
narrow tape run through eyelets, while the soles were built up of
several thicknesses of felt, amounting in all to about an inch and a
half. They had an appearance of great clumsiness, but were, as a matter
of fact, extremely light, springy, and comfortable. The thickness of
the soles, the springiness of the felt, and the absence of heels made
the boots particularly easy to march in, and the soldiers were thus able
to cover great distances without feeling fatigue. These men, in