Cantal

“ The Volcanoes of the Cantal.—The original [Pg 99] crater-cones of this group have entirely disappeared throughout the long ages which have elapsed since the lava-streams issued forth from their internal reservoirs. The general figure of this group of volcanic mountains is that of a depressed cone, whose sides slope away in all directions from the central heights, which are deeply eroded by streams rising near the apex and flowing downwards in all directions towards the circumference of the mountain, where they enter the Lot, the Dordogne, and the Allier. ”

“ PHYSIC STREET—A CHINESE CROWD—A CANTONESE PICKPOCKET—BEGGARS AND BARBERS. Honest travellers, who have visited Canton, have related twenty times the endeavours they have made to enter the walled city, the dangers they have encountered and the semi-success they have met with. Semi-success is an expression which disguises a poor falsehood ”

“ The first impression of Canton is one of noise, a fearful din rising and falling in a kind of cadence, and seeming to proceed largely from an immense flotilla of boats extending a long way, tied, in a majority of cases, seven and eight rows deep—craft of all kinds, sampans, junks, rice boats, freight, each with its quota of humanity, for this is a veritable floating city, with a life all its own, and almost wholly independent of the Canton proper which we were about to visit and which numbered a hundred thousand souls. ”

“ Its ten thousand population live and thrive, and its merchants grow rich, out of its fancy embroidery trade, now greatly extended in our country.
The inhabitants of the Canton of Appenzell, situated from one thousand to fifteen hundred feet above the level of Lake Constance, are mostly engaged in this kind of labor. The Canton is nearly equally divided between Protestants and Catholics, who live separately, scarcely ever intermarrying, and pursuing different styles of work. The country is a grazing one; the people subsist mostly upon cheese and milk. ”

“ I sympathise with the position of the English merchants at Canton. It is not a pleasant thing to live on the borders of a river, and not to have a distance of two miles for exercise. At all events it would not suit me, who am fond of exercise, and I should be most glad to see them in the course of being emancipated from that state of duress in which they are placed at Canton. One of my reasons for regretting that which is being done is, that it tends to retard indefinitely any such extension of the liberty of my countrymen. ”

“ Canton is a most fascinating city, and as one was carried in a chair through its narrow granite-paved streets (their average width is twelve feet, and they are eighty miles in extent) , one is dazzled by the wealth of beautiful and curious things displayed on every side. ”

“ Canton is a city of walls and temples; narrow streets and lanes of water; flower boats and other river craft; jostling humanity and high-pitched voices; sedan chairs and perspiring coolies; native merchants and prodigal sons; foreign merchants and diplomats — an old, old city, whose lower classes think cockroaches in honey and snakes in broth a rare combination well suited to the most fastidious tastes.
Those travelers who bide a while in Hongkong before embarking on the water journey to Canton will be rewarded with a colorful glimpse of Chinese life ”

“ In all Canton there is not a wheeled vehicle, street-car, hotel, or mouthful of food appealing to the convenience or appetite of the visitor from the West; and apart from your own coterie of sight-seers, you may for days be about the streets of the vast city without seeing a person wearing the habiliments of Europe. That section of Canton known as Shameen, in reality an island suburb, is set apart under concessions to the United States and certain European powers, and the consuls, missionaries and foreign merchants there dwell surrounded by many of the comforts of home. ”

“ From afar appeared the numerous pagodas of Canton, with their domes adorned with little gold bells. Our boat nosed her way into the crowded river, traversed by a perpetual scurry of launches, and we were at once surrounded by a flotilla of numerous sampans ornamented with golden devices. We were deafened by the screams and the dreadful noise. Canton is a veritable town of amphibians. There is not room enough on land for the two million inhabitants, who spend all their lives on the water in floating huts. ”

“ Seen from the city wall or any very high point, Canton seems a city of roofs, with scarcely an opening and not a vestige of green. The narrow streets are many of them covered with awnings. It is a city of great color, the brilliant signs, the covered palanquin chairs, the costumes of the wealthy Chinese, all contributing to the riotous effect. It is a city of very wide contrasts, for rich and poor jostle each other on the streets and their homes are often side by side. ”

“ The floating-town of Canton is, to all the Europeans who visit the Celestial Empire, the object of an exclusive predilection; for them China, the real China, the fantastic China of our screens, fans, and lacquer work, is all on the river which balances on its overhanging surface, &c., a population more numerous than that of Marseilles, Naples, Vienna, or Turin. ”

“ So, to identify his own property, Ching Wan dyed all his chickens' tails orange, whilst Hung To's fowls scratched about with mauve tails, and Kyang Foo's hens gave themselves great airs on the strength of their crimson tail feathers.
It is curious that, in spite of its wealth and huge population, Canton should contain no fine temples. The much-talked-of Five-Storied Pagoda is really hardly worth visiting, except for the splendid panorama over the city obtained from its top floor. Canton here appears like one endless sea of brown roofs extending almost to the horizon. ”

“ No city in Europe can give an idea of the movement and life which reign in the streets of Canton. The streets of Canton alone can convey an idea of the feverish activity which reigns on the Tchou-kiang. In the midst of this prodigious passing and repassing, of goods in the course of being shipped and unshipped, of faï-tings, of lorchas, of junks, of vessels coming to anchor or setting sail, of mandarins cruising about in their rich craft, and of tradesmen proceeding to business, the itinerant cooks enumerate their ragouts ”

“ Canton is so old that even the native custodians of local tradition have lost count of the years since it was founded. Some of the ancient coolies crouching near the wharves and sunning their wrinkled skins look as if they might be able to tell the age of their city; but a whimsical question elicits only a request for alms, mumbled with a mouth which has lost its teeth, so that the owner meets with difficulty in chewing even the small portions of food needed to keep the spark of life aglow in his shaky body. ”

“ I cannot understand what we are fighting for, and why Sir John Bowring should think himself degraded by an interview with Governor Yeh at Howqua's packing-house. This is a topic worth nothing but a laugh.
But is this admission to Canton, for which we are fighting, of any use? Canton is a walled city, occupied by a native population, with streets eight feet wide. Would any Englishman ever dream of living in such a place? Does an Englishman live in the Turkish quarters of Constantinople? ”

“ It is indeed the abode of pleasure! Well does the proverb say: 'Young man, go not to Canton; old man, go not to Sou-Tchuen.' The atmosphere respired here, saturated with perfume, tremulous with the musical murmurs of passion, is as fatal to inexperienced youth as the icy breath of our northern provinces is to feeble age!"
"I cannot deny," said Callery, "that the bosom of the Tchou-kiang by night offers one of the finest spectacles to be seen in the world; but, leaving out the flower-boats, I don't see that your city is any richer in pleasures than other parts of the Celestial Empire." ”

“ At Canton, my surprise amounted to stupefaction. Besides, at Macao, the crowd which blocked up the bazaar was noisy, but almost motionless—that is to say, it moved about on the same spot; it was a lake traversed by currents; in the present instance, however, the lake had overflowed its banks, and ran between two sinuous and irregular rocks. And yet, in these waves of population, among this compact crowd, we did not see a single woman, a single child, a single carriage, a single wagon, a single horse, a single dog, or a single cat; we beheld only men ”

“ I have already said that the populace of Canton is the most violent, the most stupid, and the most inconsistent in the whole universe; and I am going to give a proof of this. When the Chinese meet in the American garden, or in the narrow alleys of the factories, any beautiful child of the Saxon race with auburn hair and blue eyes, or any beautiful little boy as rosy as a cupid of Watteau, they crowd around these charming little creatures with benevolent curiosity ”

“ What a different picture Canton presents to Shameen. They say there are millions of people in Canton. The streets, many of which are roughly paved with stone, seem little over a yard in width. The shops, with their gayly colored and handsomely carved signs, are all open, as if the whole end facing the street had been blown out. In the rear of every shop is an altar, gay in color and often expensive in adornment. As we were carried along the roads we could see not only the usually rich and enticing wares, but the sellers and buyers. Every shop has a book-keeper's desk near the entrance. ”

“ Hardly is the trip through the heart of Canton begun when it is halted by the interruption of traffic on the street over which the coolies are proceeding, and by the now familiar clatter of gongs and the wail of oriental voices—some weak, some strong, some tearful, and some joyful. ”

“ Far up among the Alps, in the very heart of Switzerland, are three districts, or cantons, as they are called, which are known as the Forest Cantons and are famous in the world's history. About two thousand years ago the Romans found in these cantons a hardy race of mountaineers, who, although poor, were free men and proud of their independence. They became the friends and allies of Rome, and the cantons were for many years a part of the Roman Empire, but the people always had the right to elect their own officers and to govern themselves. ”

“ EDUCATION AND LITERATURE IN CANTON.
Canton is not only a great focus of commerce, and a city of pleasure and luxury; it is also a literary and cultivated city. Hither come, every three years, the siou-tsaï of the viceroyalty of Kuang-ton and Kuang-si, to undergo, before a member of the College of the Han-Lin, delegated by the Emperor, an examination by which they may earn the degree of kiu-jèn.
There is not a country in the world where there are such facilities of education for children of all ranks as China. ”

“ Here, the stranger will be surprised to see dogs, cats, and rats hawked about, dead and alive. I do not say that these animals form the daily food of the people of Canton, but they are daily and hourly hawked about its streets, and purchased by the poorer classes. The Canton market is, nevertheless, remarkably well supplied with the good things of this life; and the European who cannot live and be contented with the provisions procurable in it, must be hard to please. By nine o'clock at night, this huge city is perfectly quiet, and nine-tenths of its inhabitants are wrapped in sleep. ”

“ The residence of the commander-in-chief is in the old city, and is said to be one of the best houses in Canton. There are four prisons in the city, all large edifices. For the space of four or five miles opposite Canton boats and vessels are ranged parallel to each other in such close order that it resembles a floating city; and these marine dwellings are occupied by numerous families, who reside almost constantly on the water. In the middle of the river lie the Chinese junks, some of them of from 600 to 1000 tons burden, which trade to the north and to the Strait Settlements. ”

“ To successfully view Canton requires some urbanity, a wealth of patience, and a stomach not readily overthrown by gruesome and unusual sights. And, further, the visitor must never forget that his vision is looking back from one to two thousand years, and that the hordes of human beings congesting the labyrinth of streets not seven feet wide, speak of a great nation as it was, which to-day is the oldest living nation on earth. ”

“ It is also to be remembered that, in a large commercial city like Canton, a great number of bad and discontented characters are collected from all quarters. Its reputation for wealth made it a desirable field for the adventurer, while the prospect of the loss of a great portion of its trade served to produce a general discontent among the residents. Every great change, however, is commonly attended with some difficulty at first, nor was it likely that the people of Canton could readily forget the day when our troops dictated terms for the ransom of the city, from the heights above it. ”

“ Our kiosks and pavilions, beautifully painted, and delicately sculptured, rise from the midst of flowery pyramids, where blossom is piled on blossom. Then, what more can the lovers of sensual joys expect? Yet the sage and the man of letters are equally well catered for in our Canton. Here we have the greatest number of antique bronzes, folded silks voluptuously painted, and ancient objects in lacquer-work—to inspect which the greatest artists of the world meet together here. ”