Directory_and_Chronicle_1869 — Page 615

GEOGRAPHICAL AND STATISTICAL.

361

year when the distinction was first made in Custom-house records between the exports to China and to India)-to 1866 :-

sent by way of Hongkong.

(From the China Pilot.)

Hongkong Island.-About 9 miles long, N.W. by W., and S.E. by E., 2 to 5 miles broad, and with an area of about 29 square miles, lies between Lamma Island and the main, from which it is separated by a narrow channel a quarter of a mile wide, named Ly-ee-moon pass. The appearance of the island is somewhat picturesque, but on the whole it is generally barren and unprepossessing. It consists for the most part of rocky ranges, on the highest summit of which, Victoria Peak, 1,825 feet above the sea level, at the north-west part of the island, is a signal station, which communicates with the town of Victoria on the north and the ocean on the south. The island was first ceded to Great Britain by the treaty of Canton, in January, 1841, and again by the treaty of Nanking in August, 1842. The British settlement of Victoria is on its north side, nearly abreast of Kowloon point, the extreme of the peninsular of the mainland which forms the west side of Kowloon bay, and which was ceded to Great Britain by the treaty of 1860. Water abounds everywhere, and is supplied to shipping by tanks; each valley

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