Directory_and_Chronicle_1881 — Page 376

کنند

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TAKU.

This village is situated at the mouth of the Pei-bo, on the southern side of the river, about sixty-seven miles from Tientsin. The land is so flat at Taku that it is difficult for a stranger to detect the entrance to the river. There are two anchorages, an outer and inner. The former extends from the Customs Junks to three miles outsile the Bar, seaward; the latter from Liang-kia-yuan on the south to the Customs Jetty, Tz'chu-lin, on the north. The village is a poor one, possessing few shops, no buildings of interest except the forts, and the only foreign residents are the Customs employés, some pilots, and the members of the Vice Consular establish- ment. A British Vice-Consul is stationed at Taku and receives the papers of all British sailing vessels bound for Tientsin as well as Taku; steamers retain theirs. until at Tientsin. A line of telegraph was constructed in the early part of 1879 om Taku to Tientsin by the Provincial Authorities, and is now regularly worked by them.

Taku nemorabl on account of the engagements that have taken place between its forts anu e British and French naval forces. The first attack was made on the 20th May, 1858, by the British squadron under Sir Michael Seymour, when the forts were passed and Lord Elgin proceeded to Tientsin, where on the 26th June he signed the famous Treaty of Tientsin. The second attack, which was fatally unsuccessful, was made by the British forces in June, 1859. The third took place on the 21st August, 1860, when the forts were captured and the booms placed across the river destroyed, and the British ships sailed triumphantly up to Tientsin. From the description of the place in "The Treaty Ports of China," we gather that the water on the bar ranges from about two to fourteen feet at the Spring tides. The Chinese name of the bar is Lau-kiang-sha. At certain states of the tide, steamers are obliged to anchor outside until there is sufficiert water to cross, but they are seldom detained very long. Towards the end of autumn it sometimes happens that the river is so low that vessels drawing over seven feet of water are unable to get up to Tientsin, but this is by no means a common occurrence. The river and the northern edge of the gulf are generally frozen in about the 9.h December, and few vessels attempt an entry after the end of November. The ice breaks up, as a rule, abcut the second week in March.

DIRECTORY.

Vice-consul-

Vice Consulate. BRITISH.

Imperial Maritime Customs. Assistant Tide-surveyor-R. Trannack Tide waiter-Thos. W. Laidler

Signalman H. A. Behnke

Lightship Taku.

Captain J. Sloane

First Mate-C. Nielsen

Second Mate-W. Knight

Pilots.

TAKU PILOT COMPANY.

A. G. Baxter

W. Boad

G. W. Hicks

T. Livingston

J. Young

J. Fölser G. Mitchell

C. B. Sherman

Jas. Watts, secretary C. Parker, clerk

J. C. Hill

TAKU TUG AND LIGHTER COMFANY.

James Watts, secretary, C. Parker,

clerk

Tow BOATS.

Pathfinder, J. M. Nisbet, engineer

Peiho, Wm. Wells,

do.

Orphan, Elijah Wella,

do.

Insolent,

Wm. Grant, C. B. Sherman, captains of

tow boats

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