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FOOCHOW
pursuing separate courses for fifteen miles, unite a little above Pagoda Anchorage. The foreign settlement stands on the northern side of the island thus formed and which is called Nantai. A bridge across the river, known as the Long Bridge, or Bridge of the Ten Thousand Ages, affords access to the city.
The climate of Foochow is mild and delightful for about nine months of the year, out in the summer it is rather trying, the range of the thermometer then being from 74 leg. Fahr. to 98 deg.
The scenery surrounding Foochow is very beautiful. In sailing up the Min river rom the sea vessels have to leave the wide stream and enter what is called the Kimpai Pass, which is barely half-a-mile across, and enclosed as it is by bold, rocky walls, it presents a very striking appearance. The Pass of Min-ngan is narrower, and with its zowering cliffs, surmounted by fortifications and cultivated terraces, is extremely pictur- esque, and has been compared to some of the scenes on the Rhine. The Yung Fu, a ributary of the Min, also affords some charming scenery, the hills rising very abruptly from the river bank. The Min Monastery, the Moon Temple, and the Kushan Monastery, ill occupying most romantic and beautiful sites, are fine specimens of Chinese religious edifices, and are much resorted to by visitors. Game abounds in all the ravines and mountains in the vicinity of Foochow, while tigers and panthers are common in the more remote hills, and some of these beasts have been killed within ten miles of the city.
Foreign vessels are compelled to anchor at Pagoda Island, owing to the shallow- ness of the river, which has been increasing of late years the difliculties of avigation; even at the anchorage the river is still silting up in several places. The limits of the port of Foochow extend from the City Bridge to the Kimpai Pass. The Mamoi Arsenal, near Pagoda Anchorage, is an extensive Government stablishment, where several good-sized gunboats have been built, but it now stands practically idle. The Arsenal was bombarded by the French on the 23rd-24th August, 1884, and reduced to partial ruin, but was restored. The establishment vas later reorganised, and was for some years administered by French experts. There s a dock in connection with the Arsenal on Losing Island. The dock is over 300 ft. long and has very powerful pumps and a good steel caisson. A small daily paper called the Foochow Echo is published here. Until 1905 one mint, known as the City or Viceroy's Mint, served to supply the coinage requirements of the ocal province, but in that year the government set up two additional mints, for which there was no need, but only an alluring prospect of profit on the export and sale of copper 10-cash coins. It was calculated that two million pieces per lay were being turned out by the three mints. The market value of the coins quickly fell below par, and orders from Peking reducing the output to 300,000 coins per lay, and forbidding the export of coins to other provinces, necessitated the closing of he two mints before they had been in operation twelve months. In June, 1900, the port was visited by the most disastrous floods known there in living memory, the river ising through heavy rains, which overflowed and deluged the country, sweeping way villages and causing immense havoc and loss of life. The population of Foochow s estimated at 650,000.
The net value of the trade of the port coming under the cognisance of the Foreign Customs in 1910 was Tls. 18.419,812 compared with Tls. 17,670,714 in 1909, Tls. 17,150,000 in 1908 and Tls. 18,952,000 in 1907, which was higher than it had been or many years. Less than two decades ago the Customs revenue was fully two nillion taels annually; in 1909 it was only Tls. 825,327.
KULIANG
A refuge from the heat of summer at Foochow can be gained by a four hours hair ride to the top of Kuliang, ¿e., “Drum Pass,” which is a mountain resort situated about nine miles east of Foochow. The thermometer indicates an average of 10 legrees cooler on the mountain than it is in Foochow ; the nights are always cool and plankets a necessity for comfort, Dr. Rennie was the first to build a house of foreign lesign at Kuliang in 1886. Now there are upwards of one hundred such houses, and every ummer between two and three hundred persons, chiefly missionaries, are in residence n the mountain. According to the Admiralty Chart, Kuliang reaches a height of ,900 feet. Nearly five miles of stone paved roads, about three feet in width have been made under the supervision of a Public Improvement Committee, appointed by