did not know what to make of it. After a
consultation, it was decided to fire a shot from the rifle and see
what it would lead to. No sooner had the report rung out, than there
was a bustle and stir on the vessel's decks, which appeared suddenly
to swarm with men, and became illuminated by lanterns. I told Chung to
hail. He did so, and a voice replied in Chinese. We drew close
abreast, and my companions held a parley with those on board. Our
situation explained we were permitted to ascend. The junk was full of
men. She had got into her present predicament in escaping, and they
were waiting for the morning flood tide to float her off. Two or three
junks, we were told, had struck torpedoes in leaving the harbour and
been blown in pieces, and many others had fallen into the clutches of
the enemy. Those on board, besides her usual crew, were chiefly
soldiers. With the profound deference paid to rank by the Orientals,
the chief cabin was at once given up to the mandarin, who insisted on
my sharing it with him. He and Chung gave a most glowing account of me
to those on board, to whom, in my remarkable accoutrement, I was an
object of legitimate curiosity.

Exhausted by exertion and anxiety, I was fast asleep within
half-an-hour after stepping up the junk's side. I slept far into the
day, and when I emerged found that she had been successfully floated
off the bank, and got out to sea without so far attracting the notice
of the Japanese ships.

CHAPTER VII

A very queer craft is a Chinese junk. Few Europeans have any defined
idea what they are like. They are of different sizes, most of them
suited to the numerous rivers and canals which intersect the country
in every part. The largest are of about one thousand tons burden. The
whole mode of building is most peculiar. Instead of the timbers being
first raised as with us, they are the last in their places, and the
vessel is put together with immense spiked nails. The next process is
doubling and clamping above and below decks. Two immense beams or
string pieces are then ranged below, fore and aft, and keep the other
beams in their places. The deck-frames are an arch, and a platform
erected on it protects it from the sun, and from other injuries
otherwise inevitable. The seams are caulked either with old
fishing-net or bamboo shavings, and then paid with a cement called
chinam, consisting of oyster-shells burnt to lime, with a mixture of
fine bamboo shavings, pounded