1138. Many fatal results to seamen and passengers are caused by the noxious gas which emanates from coal tar in broach in the fore hold, where it is too frequently kept. The timbers of the illfated Eclair, afterwards called the Rosamond, were saturated with coal tar as an antidote for dry rot, and to this circumstance is attributed the malignant fever which carried off her crew. Coal tar for present use is recommended to be kept in an iron cask, lashed on the fore part of the upper deck. In November, 1863, the Swedish schooner Victor Auguste, loaded at Pitea in the northern part of Sweden, 818 barrels of tar, averaging each 274 gallons. The barrels averaged 24 feet long, 22 inches diameter in the bilge, and 20 inches at the ends; and weighed about 3 cwt. Ninety-one barrels were stowed on deck. So laden she drew 10 feet aft and 10 forward. With eight keels Newcastle coal she drew 11 feet aft and 10 forward. This schooner is 77 feet long, 21 feet 7 inches broad, and 37 fect girth. Hold tonnage 112.75, break aft 3·11, total 115.86 tons.

Tonnage, Freight, &c. 100 barrels Archangel tar 16 tons, 100 barrels of Stockholm tar 16 tons, 136 barrels American tar and rosin 17 tons, will occupy 850 cubic feet or 1 keel. A vessel which can take 318.7 tons measurement, can stow 500 barrels tar and 100 tons clean hemp. A vessel of 220 tons register will carry 1,553 barrels tar; see pitch. E.I.Co. 6 barrels to a ton, New York the same. On the Crinan Canal 8 barrels of tar go as a ton. When wheat is 18. quarter freight, Archangel tar is rated at 113d. ☞ barrel, and American 84d. A barrel of tar weighs 3 cwt. ; a last consists of 12 barrels; at Rotterdam 13 barrels.

1139. TARES AND ALLOWANCES according to the practice of the London Waterside Customs. In cases where goods cannot conveniently be weighed net, the weight of package, all internal wrappers, papers, strings, &c., should be ascertained and deducted from the gross to produce net weight; this is termed taring, and is practised in the following several ways, viz. :—

By Actual Tare: Turn out the goods, take the weight of each package and enclosure, which deduct from the gross. This is performed by landing waiters, all other descriptions of tare being settled and written off in words at length, with initials and date, by landing surveyors.

By Average: When packages vary little from each other a limited portion is selected by the landing officers, their contents turned out, and from them, when tared by the landing surveyor, an average is struck, and allowed upon the whole number.

By Per Centage: When packages vary considerably with one another in their gross weights, but bear a relative proportion, it is usual to select a few differing that shall altogether equal the average

weight, then turn out, tare, and convert these either into a per centage or a per package rate, and apply as before.

By Allowed Tare: This is an adjudged or estimated allowance, agreed upon by the landing surveyor and the merchant, or his agent, and applied either per package, per cent., or by proportionate deduction, as may be most convenient.

By a Super Tare is meant a special allowance granted for the increase of weight a package may have imbibed in a leaky ship; or when gross weight regulates the tare, as in British plantation casks of sugar, from part of the contents being washed out.

Draft is now allowed by the Customs on the article of tobacco alone.

N.B.-Tares once adjusted by the landing officers in conjunction with the merchant or his representative must stand as final, G.O. No. 114, 1848; and officers are strictly enjoined not to take any cognizance of goods after they shall have been passed and delivered, without the express sanction of the Board. G.O. No. 63, 1850.

1140. TARTAR, the sediment from wine, said to be cream of tartar in the rough state, and not quite so heavy as soda. Great quantities are shipped in the London steamers at Naples in large casks of various sizes, 18 to 20 cwt., and stowed the same as dry goods.

1141. TEA. The principal ports in China are Canton, Amoy, Foo-chow-foo, Ningpo, and Shanghai.

Souchong is a corruption of "Siau-chung," meaning "little plant." Hyson is derived from "Yu-tsien," meaning "before the rains; " some say from "Hi-chun," meaning "flourishing spring."

Pekoe, the name applied to the coarse leaves gathered earliest, is a corruption of "Pec-co," meaning "white hairs,"-the very young leaves having a white down upon them.

Bohea, now obsolete, was derived from the name of the Bu-i Hills, in the province of Canton.

Most commonly there are three periods of gathering tea in China; the first commences about 15th April, the second at Midsummer, and the last in August and September. Another authority says, there are four distinct tea harvests. The first is in April, when the young leaves furnish the very finest kinds. The second in May, is the principal one as regards quantity; from the earlier portion of this harvest is supplied the "new season's tea," which dealers advertise in August and September, and which is so eagerly awaited

that it is the custom for the merchant who receives the first cargo to reward the celerity of the vessel bringing it, by presenting a handsome premium to her owner and master. The third harvest is in July, and the fourth in August, when the "stripping" affords only large coarse leaves, consumed chiefly by the poorer classes of Chinese labourers. The Assam season for tea making commences generally about the middle of March, the second crop in the middle of May, the third crop about the first of July. The names given to the different teas refer more to the time at which they were gathered than to their quality, of which, in each kind, there is every grade.

1142. The hold should be well ventilated with windsails several days before receiving cargo. To do this when full, vessels have large ventilators fitted forward and aft, which are much approved; shippers prefer a vessel supplied with them, if she is in good order and well painted. Sometimes for the reception of tea the holds are white-washed, which make them light and sweet, but it causes the ironwork to rust. It is contended that the iron should be painted red and the woodwork scraped clean. The heavier the ballast the better; it is generally metal, or granite built in; these are covered with shingle, which is much approved, and about three-fourths of the whole are levelled over the keelson, even with it or below it, as the case may be the depth being regulated by a gauge to receive so many heights of chests between the beams and the ballast, which is first covered with half-inch fir. The Chinese stevedores are not surpassed for good stowage in any part of the world, and the course usually observed by them at Canton with, say a ship of 500 tons register, has been thus described ::- "Tiers of chests are laid fore and aft, say five from side to side-amidships eight tiers. Take a set between the 'midship tiers and the end tiers, and set them up square and tight; then three or five tiers more, both amidships and aft, and set them up perfectly square from one wing to the other; if the tiers come in regularly up to the meeting of the chests of tea, they are dropped in in pairs, or what is termed "married:" but if they require setting, the whole tiers are set upon and the last dropped in. This tier, when completed, is gauged in like manner as the ballast, from underneath the beams, to see they are perfectly level. Slips of wood are put on should there be the least hollow; and if any chest stands high it is lifted, and the ballast robbed to make the tier level, but should the deviation not exceed one-eighth of an inch, the mere jumping on the chest will do. The gauge is then lessened one tier, and it is carefully tried fore and aft, to see there is no discrepancy. This method is pursued up to underneath

the beams, and when that is completed, if no convenient chests can be had to suit the height of the beams, the beam-fillings are five and ten catty boxes, placed so as to make a level as near as possible, and all deficiencies filled in with China fir. Great care is taken with this tier, the height being measured from the upper beams and the stowing goes on as it did below. When the deck beams are reached, caution is necessary in order to make the stowage of the ship advantageous to the owner, as it is not always that chests are to be had to suit the filling close up to the upper deck-five catty-boxes being the least to fill up a space often 14 by 12 inches. On rising from the ballast in the lower hold, close to the skin, from the fore shoulder to abreast the mainmast, it is necessary to keep the tea at least nine inches from the sides." Some gauges are in the form of a light square frame, others are formed like a capital T, but they are not so reliable as square frames, on account of the occasional inequality of the hold beams, oak especially, the hollows of which might not be detected with T frames; sometimes a simple measuring rod is used, at others two half-rods, sliding-gunter fashion. When stowing the last chest in an early tier, a Chinaman rather than strike it with any hard instrument walks off to a distance, and running back jumps into the air and falls in a sitting posture on the chest, which is thus sent uninjured into its place. Formerly when a tier was "commanded," and the screws used to gain an inch, the whole tier was sometimes crushed; now if screws are used a plank is so placed as to take a whole tier and prevent injury to any chest. Experienced stevedores are too correct in their measurements to require the frequent use of screws.

1143. Sometimes strips of bamboo are nailed up and down the side lining, and over the deck, to preserve the tea boxes from the influence of chafe, and from damage by leakage; by its silicious. exterior bamboo resists wet and carries it off; the throats of the beams are muffled with canvas, or sennet nailed across the upper part, and led down so as to train any leakage towards the sides, and thus prevent water from running along the beams to the stanchions, where it will edge off and fall into the centre of the cargo. It is particularly necessary to muffle the beams in the wake of the fore topmast backstay bolts; it would be prudent also to do so immediately below all scuppers. Damage from causes mentioned here seldom amounts to an average; and the insurer being freed the loss falls on the merchant, who would have some difficulty to establish a claim for bad stowage or insufficient dunnage, but he would afterwards prefer chartering some other ship, on board which more

caution is observed. The lower tier should be on their bottoms, because the soldering is more perfect; but the chests are sometimes stowed on their sides for the sake of getting in heights; the other tiers on their sides or edges, as they will come in for heights. In the wings are occasionally stowed the remaining fourth of the ballast, or (in American ships) mats of cassia; for it sometimes happens that this portion of the ballast is required to trim the ship, either forward or aft, in which case the wings of most tea-laden ships, is liable to make them roll; in the ends it makes them twist at sea. Some contend that its best position for sailing is in a trunkway on the keelson; this involves much loss of stowage for the tea, but the gain in sailing may more than compensate. For a ship constantly in the trade, iron kentledge is best; granite is dear in the north of China, but reasonable at Canton. The heat of tea, like many other dry cargoes, will draw dampness from any porous stone previously in contact with water. Some ballast from Australia is very unsuitable; many cargoes have been delivered in London out of condition and flat, in consequence of being stowed on Sydney ballast, which is a porous sandstone. It is better to leave out the wing chests, for if wetted one inch it will run through the whole chest; sometimes half chests are stowed here, but they must be well ballasted off from the skin. In order to assist in protecting from injury by leakages, chests of tea are sized and stopped with a composition of blood, &c.; they are then covered with plain paper, and afterwards with transparent paper having figures on it. Both these papers are pasted on. The boxes are afterwards ranged in stacks, and one side being oiled, the sides are changed until the boxes are oiled over completely. When applied the oil emits a very obnoxious stench, which is said not to be injurious to the contents. Every chest and catty is carefully lined with a loose leaden case, and that again with paper. The leaden case is very strongly soldered with a bright metal, which is said to contain quite an appreciable quantity of silver. (The lead of which the case itself is made is much harder than our lead; nearly all of it that reaches this country is used for making printers' types.) The chests containing green teas are frequently lined exteriorly to the lead lining or case, with spathes of the maize plant, or with other kind of broad leaves, and many of the "catties of very fine teas are so elaborately decorated, that after arriving in this country they often do service for years as ornaments in the windows of tea dealers and grocers. Although Chinese artificers work very cheaply, the labour and skill, of so many kinds, involved in this careful packing and elaborate ornamentation cost money nevertheless, and add materially to the first cost.