CO129-007 - Sir John Davis - 1844 — Page 54

ferviding

ou it after rain

Qu

stamning

the sites of houses in Victoria-house -

fundalims were

Bides.

beng

cxcavated the

1 of the hills the strata appeared like

pichly prepared compost emitting a fetid odour of the most sickening nature- and which at night must prove poison. This strata quickly

a

a deadly absorbent

any quantity of rain, which it retains

to the surface in the nature

of.

The position

fustiferous mineral yas. of the town of Victoria, which

may

be

likened to the bottom of a

crater with

a lake, prevents the dissipation of this aad, while the geological formation favors the retention of a sufficient

poison.

or rather

watted into

the surface, occasionally - deadly activity.

extent of a marsh

There is no

the island capable

of generating miasma

but the heavy

rains annually washing large

portions

of the mountains through deep

and thus continually

turned into the

Bay

: rotten surface to the sun

exposing a fresh subterranean

source and preserving a focus of disease- which will finally become endemic.

Large quantities of the silt from the hills

are

being deposited - along the shores of the Harbor, which owing

to this circumstance-

and the rapid receding of the tides from this coast, is becoming

The

day. The

only

harbor

very

greater extent of the bay had 4 to 5 fathoms, and in the depot 1 to 2 fathoms

of the steam there is

only

great interval of time the harbor

of Hong Kong

will be too shoal in many

places for large vessels. !