d high above, like a banner over each shop, is a huge varnished
and gilded signboard, with a description of the style of merchandise to
be sold within. As these boards hang at right angles from the walls,
they contribute much to the gay appearance of the street.

The Chinese delight in placing quaint inscriptions over their shops.
Many of the streets are dirty in the extreme, while the shops are dark
and dismal, and the shopkeepers far from urbane and accommodating:
people these narrow streets, with their signboards and gateways, with an
ever-moving crowd of yellow-faced, turn-up nosed, pig-eyed beings in
blue and brown and yellow cotton dresses, wide trousers, loose jackets,
and thatch-shaped hats, carrying long bamboos with boxes or baskets
hanging at each end, or hung over with paper lanterns or birdcages, and
all sorts of other articles, and here and there a sedan-chair with some
mandarin or lady of rank inside, borne by two stout porters; and we have
a fair idea of a Chinese city. Then, of course, there are public
buildings of larger dimensions, and temples and towers of porcelain,
pictures of which everybody has seen; and then outside the walls are
canals and lakes, and curious high-arched bridges, and summer-houses and
pagodas.

In the suburbs of Canton, where the foreign factories are situated, the
shops are open, and the streets are not so much ornamented as in the
city itself, but the plan of the houses and the general arrangements are
similar.

No other ship of war was at Canton when the _Dugong_ arrived. Captain
Grant had fully expected to find the _Blenny_ there, and was much
disappointed at her non-appearance. He waited anxiously for several
days, but she did not appear. At length he determined to sail in search
of her.

"To lose our consort, and those two fine young fellows, Rogers and
Murray, is very trying," he observed to Lieutenant Cherry, as they
walked the deck together, while the ship was standing away from Canton.

"As to the _Blenny_, sir, she'll turn up before long, depend upon it,
unless she is hard and fast somewhere on a rock," answered the
lieutenant. "Hemming has been routing out some of those piratical
scoundrels, and they probably have given him a longer chase than he
expected."

Still Captain Grant was not satisfied. As the frigate cruised along she
brought to all the vessels of every sort she fell in with, and made
inquiries at every island and place where anything like a