Directory_and_Chronicle_1845 — Page 215

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city wall rather less than a mile, till the thinly scattered houses, a fine sombre avenue of trees and a flag-staff with the British Union floating aloft on the over-hanging rocks, inimated our approach to the Wú-shih shán or "the Black-stone hill," which first by a gentle acclivity and afterwards by a steep ascent over alternate path-ways and terraces brought me into full view of the romantic collection of detached temples, which form the site of the British Consulate.

From the top of Wú-shih shán, about 300 feet above the sur- rounding level, a fine view is gained of the city and adjacent coun- try. Seated on a corner of one of the projecting rocks, with the huge boulder stones lying around and aloft, the perennial monuments of one of nature's most violent convulsions, in the wreck and ruins of antecedent ages, with only a few patches of herbage or fragments of bushes, the quiet solittude of the spot where I lingered contrasted strangely with the busy scenes below and the anima ted appearance of the country around. At my feet lay the populous city of Fuhchau, with its teeming masses of living idolatry, while, at a little distance beyond, the undulating plains, which begirt the city, rctreated on either side till they met the range of lofty hills, rising from two to three thousand feet in height and closing it around in a circular basin of natural formation. On the east, north and west, at the dis- tance of from four to seven miles, a slightly broken country termi- nates in the hills, forming a bold amphitheatre round the northern half of the city. On the south, the level ground, stretching far across the river to the average distance of about twelve miles, is bounded by the mountainous range, which closes in the prospect.

As Fuhchau is a garrison city, with the whole provincial posse of civil and military mandarins, there is a succession of watch-towers every two or three hundred yards, with two or three cannon resting on carriages without wheels, and pointing outwards into the adjacent country. The Mánchús are said to number 3000; but according to their own accounts; on this occasion, they had no accurate means of knowing their precise numbers but computed them to amount, with women and children, to about 8000. They have the cha- racter of being a turbulent and haughty race and sometimes very troublesome to the Chinese officers, from whose jurisdiction they are generally exempt, being subject to officers of their own race.

Of the prospects of a foreign trade with Europe I am but little qualified to form an opinion. As however the place is not rich in