1144. Macao. The barque Grasmere, Capt. T. S. STOCKMAN, belonging to Messrs. DEVITT and MOORE, left Macao 9th November, 1869, with 630 tons (of 42 feet) of tea, consisting of 1,807 chests, 200 half-chests, and 18,517 boxes, with 90 tons (of 50 feet) of Canton matting, consisting of 762 rolls. She had 100 tons of shingle ballast and the dunnage consisted of Canton small cane, shipped as dunnage, for an alleged deficiency of which, on delivery, a claim of £6 10s. was made and refused. As there is always a deficiency, masters are recommended not to sign bills of lading "accountable for quantity delivered." The Grasmere is 142 feet long, 28.5 broad, and 17.5 deep; so laden she drew 14 feet 6 inches aft; her best trim at sea is on an even keel; with 660 tons of coal shipped at different places in Sydney and Japan, she drew 16 feet forward and 16 feet aft. Her port charges at Macao were about £1 pton on the whole.

1145. At Whampoa, with ships rather full in the bottom, it is the practice of the Chinese stevedores to spread the ballast (stone) fore and aft to about the level of the keelson. The remainder is neatly built up wall-fashion, perpendicular, in the bilge or belly; the space between is filled with tea. A ship of 777 tons register, carrying it is said, 1,500 tons general goods, was thus stowed in 1854, and the mode was found to answer well at sea. In her case the side ballast extended from a little abaft the pump-well to the foremast, beginning and ending where the surfaces of the walls met the sides of the ship at each end. It was about six feet high, and there was sufficient space above to stow two tiers of chests. It is almost unnecessary to add that this mode cannot be used economically in wall-sided ships.

1146. Mats. Canton matting is shipped all the year round, chiefly at Whampoa. It is in bales and rolls varying in length from two to six feet, and averaging 56 lbs. in weight. It is usually brought to Europe in the 'tween decks amidships, clear of iron beams, stanchions, and ties, and in stowing should be treated like bale goods. By proximity, Canton matting will injure preserved ginger in cases. It is frequently brought in tea ships. A ton for freight 50 cubic feet.

1147. At Canton, the seller pays the export duty, and tare is taken between the merchant and Customs' officer, by each party selecting so many chests out of every 100, which being first weighed in gross, are so afterwards tared; the average is assumed as the tare of the whole. On this principle the tares of other goods in packages are taken. At the other Chinese ports the buyer is responsible for the duty, which is paid upon the same weights as he pays the native merchants. In a parcel of 600 chests (which is a chop of congou tea) 20 chests are selected by the buyer and weighed for the gross; 10 others are also selected by him and, their contents being turned out, they are weighed for tare. The result, net weight, is adopted by seller, buyer, and Customs' officer; the latter is seldom present, but reserves to himself the right to re-weigh if he has any cause for suspicion. In China a port clearance is designated a grand chop.

1148. Catty boxes could be procured only at Canton formerly, now they are to be had at all the ports, but not so plentifully as at Canton; they are shipped in bundles of four tied together, and if so delivered in London, receive full freight; if the rattan is cut, and the boxes used for small stowage, half freight only is paid. Tea ships will stow 50 to 60 cent. over their register tonnage, and so much as 75 if supplied with an assortment of catty or other small boxes. Large quantities of matting in rolls are also shipped as cargo, with teas. On an average, tea from Shanghai weighs heavier than that from Canton.

1149. Some merchants object to the importation of any other article whatever, excepting silk, in the same hold with tea; silk, however, contains moisture, and when in large quantities, is liable to injure tea. Japan waste silk (the combings after the silk is drawn) emits an offensive exhalation highly injurious to tea, and when in the same hold has been the cause of several actions at law. The presence of even 20 chests of rhubarb may give a cargo of tea a bad character. Sugar is prohibited in China, as its fumes are highly injurious. Cassia is never put into a tea cargo for England; for America cassia in mats is always shipped without prejudice to the cargo; the mats which contain 1 lb. and 2lbs. each, are stowed under the beams, &c., and where nothing else will go. Partridge canes and small bamboo sticks (used for umbrellas, &c.) are often shipped at Canton at a low freight for dunnage, and so expressed in the bill of lading. Great care should be taken to keep tea apart from any article likely to create strong fumes; from ship chandlery of every description, from boatswain's stores, such as ropes, cordage,

and sails, the latter having much tar in the roping and seaming; these stores should be all stowed on the upper deck, the seams of which require to be examined frequently on the voyage home, for the damage done to one chest will often destroy many others near. Tea stored on the first floor of a warehouse has been seriously deteriorated in value by the fumes of a cargo of oranges placed on the ground floor.

1150. Tight ships in the China trade are more liable to injure their cargoes than ships which leak a little, as the effluvia from the bilge-water of tight ships will be more injurious, especially where there are 'tween decks. Bilge water naturally affects tea; and where a ship is tight, clean water should be let down and pumped up again at least once every week. Sir WILLIAM BURNETT'S fluid, or a pint of chloride of lime in each bucket of water will be very efficacious. The bilge-water in ships carrying rice, exhales an effluvia of the most noxious character; when it falls into the bilges it ferments speedily, and cargoes of coffee especially have been greatly damaged thereby. Bilge-water impregnated with fermented rice has been known, when the pumps are used, to turn the white paint of a ship's mainmast to a bluish lead colour, and to injure in the same manner the new paint of a ship lying alongside. Split or whole peas, Indian corn, grain, &c., bottled beer in straw, &c., are very injurious. Some contend that every ship carrying tea should be provided with bilge pumps, and that no ship which has carried grain, sugar, coal, or any similar cargo, should take in tea before her hold has been washed with lime-water, and every particle of the old cargo extracted from the ballast and the bilges. The bilge-water from oak (Yorkshire especially) and East India teak-built ships, is very offensive. Oak and other hard woods eat out and rust iron bolts, spikes, nails, &c., and generate verdigris from copper, which increases the offensiveness of bilge-water. Ships built of American pine or other resinous woods do not generate bilge-water so injurious, and their cargoes consequently suffer less. Some consider that new iron ships are not well adapted for carrying tea-first season especially. perienced taster can, it is said, quickly discover that a chest of tea has been brought in an iron ship. They "steam" occasionally, and when the steam condenses under the decks and beams, and drops, the packages below become damp, and are, of course, injured. Many American and English tasters smoke tobacco while performing their duty; they take the cigar out of their mouth, sip, and resume it immediately. It is said that as smoking is universal in the United States, a taster who smokes is best qualified to judge of the suitability of the tea for the American market.

An ex

1151. On the voyage home it is very necessary to keep a tea cargo perfectly dry; for this reason every precaution should be adopted. Leakage not unfrequently occurs through the scupper holes; the flange or leaden lip of the scupper is often tripped up by the gunwale of a barge or boat lying alongside; the copper nail is loosened and subsequently knocked out, and leakage ensues. When the scupper gets choked with a piece of coal or any such substance, a broom-stick, iron rod, or crow-bar, is thrust in without caution, the lining is stabbed, and a concealed leak is created. Leaks behind the pipe of the head pump are sometimes hidden for a long time. After heavy weather, one of the first places where leakage occurs is around the fore top-mast back-stay bolts. There is always a heavy strain here from the jib-boom, flying jib-boom, and head sails, caused by the severe jerking which is created when the ship falls forward in the trough of a heavy sea. The water first obtains slight access in the after parts; the ship goes into harbour and the bolts rust; she goes to sea again, when the strain works off the rust and more water is admitted. Fire-tarred iron bolts, one-sixteenth or even one-eighth of an inch larger, should be inserted, and they should afterwards be watched carefully. For other leakage liabilities, see the articles grain, master, and mate.

1152. Ships with a broad beam are best adapted for carrying tea; what is lost in speed is more than gained in stowage. The Kelso, 529 tons register, carries out, not deep, 800 tons coal, home 820 tons tea; length over all 145 feet, beam 32, hold 18 feet. The Friar Tuck, 662 tons register, a longer and narrower ship, carries, it is said, less cargo, and requires 200 tons more ballast. Both ships left Whampoa the same day; the Friar Tuck was beaten by some hours to London, by the Kelso, which is one of the best ships known in the tea trade.

1153. Long narrow ships carry more dead-weight and measurement, but require more ballast with tea; some of them are cranker when tea-laden than when in ballast, with the same amount in both cases. Several clipper ships require a large amount of ballast, or else they are on their beam ends all the voyage, and cannot take advantage of their sailing qualities. It seems all right in theory that length compensates for beam, but it fails in practice, as the writer (an experienced master) never saw a long narrow ship, tealaden, that to use a paradox, would stand up until she was nearly on her broadside, and got her straight deep sides to bear on the water. If they have no passengers most ships with poops carry them half full at least with tea, frequently leaving only space enough

for the master and mate to mess in, which tends of course to make the ships crank. Merchants complain that teas and silks are often damaged by being stowed in the poop or cabin, where they get wet from leaks, or by heavy seas coming over the vessel, which must find their way down the companions or sky-lights. Not being under hatches, such goods are considered not lawfully stowed. To show the quick dispatch of ships in the China trade, an English ship 586 tons register, 800 tons burthen, commenced loading at six a.m., 10th August, 1858, left off at five p.m., resumed at six a.m. on the 11th, and by noon had completed the reception of her cargo, 8,000 chests of tea, and 1,141 bales of silk. An American ship of 800 tons passed Macao and went to Whampoa, where she discharged 13,000 peculs of Java rice, weighing every pound over the ship's side, took in a full cargo of tea, and passed Macao again on the seventh day for New York.

1154. All packages of tea are frapped round with wet rattans (split) which become dry and hard. The Chinese tie them here and there with knots, half-inch and occasionally three-quarter inch high, but pressed nearly flat in the hold; these are of course reckoned in the measurement for freight. When breaking out tiers in the hold, with cotton hooks or otherwise, if due caution is not observed the rattans will be torn off, and on re-measurement the ship will suffer. By the breaking of chests, and bursting at the corners in handling, a cargo of tea will, on delivery in England, measure 2 to 4 cent. more than when shipped in China. Some callipers have fine brass facings, capable of measuring with great correctness to the sixteenth of an inch. The callipers used in China are peculiar to the China trade; they were invented by an American merchant, and are called STANBURY'S measuring rod; it is accompanied by a table of logarithms, is wonderfully accurate, and saves much time. These callipers have also very fine brass facings. For America teas are measured in China, the freight agreed on and stated on the face of the bill of lading; such statement is not binding, and the master has a right to re-measure on delivery; but the right is seldom exercised in the United States.

1155. The following table, although prepared by an eminent London firm, must not be relied on as correct in every case. Another authority says, the cubical contents of a chest of congou is 4.685 feet, and of souchong 4.825, and that all the others vary so much it is scarcely possible to give even an average scale. A merchant who has had fifteen years' experience in China, remarks that the sizes mentioned are all too high; a chest of congou at 5 feet 2 inches will