Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 111

1842.

Notices of the Per Ho

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plenipotentiary, &c., anchored off the mouth of this river on the 28th of July, 1816, in five fathoms, about lat. 38° 58′ N., and long. 117" 57' E.

H. B. M. ship Lion, captain sir Erasmus Gower, having on board the earl of Macartney, embassador extraordinary, minister plenipo- tentiary, &c., anchored near the same place on the 25th of July, 1793.

From the writings of those who were connected with these three missions, and from native maps, we shall bring together such infor- mation as seeins most likely to interest our readers, at a moment when another visit to the north may be expected. Staunton, Barrow, Ellis, Davis, and Abel are the authors from whom most of our infor- mation is derived.

"The rise and fall of the tides, at the Lion's anchorage were about eight or nine feet. They ebbed and flowed irregularly and from every point of the compass; but the strength of the flood tide was from the southeast, and of the ebb from the northwest. On the sixth of August (being the day of the new noon), the flood tide made at nine hours and forty minutes in the morning; it rose ten feet, and was high water at one o'clock; and remained without turning till four in the afternoon. The wind was then east, and moderate. There was no perceptible difference in the observation of the tide on the following day." Staunton, vol. II., p. 79.

The line of coast, from that point where the Great Wall terminates in the sea, lat. 40° 4′ N., long. 120° 2′ E., runs southwest till to the south of the river, where it trends first southward and then eastward. In clear weather the forts and a pagoda, near the river's mouth, are visible from the anchorage 12 or 14 miles due east. At the mouth of the river is a bar, stretching north-northeast and south-southwest, over which, at low water, the depth is not more than three or four feet, and which in many places is nearly or quite dry. The Mada- gascar, on the 11th of August, 1840, had twelve feet at spring tides. Lieutenant Campbell, in 1793, found "that a course of west by north, according to the compass, led up the best channel, in a line with the fort which stands on the southwest side of the entrance into the river, which at its mouth was about one-third of a mile in width, and three fathoms in depth at low water." Upon the bar, and within it, Staun- ton says the water is thick and sandy, although outside it is remarka- bly green and clear. He found the bar divided into a number of sandy banks, lying in various directions, but so high and so close to each other as to prevent the passage, even of small vessels, except at