Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/217

15 white crystals, and in the deeper parts the rocks, at the bottom, are coloured of a bluish-green tinge. The sheds built about the mine are merely to protect the stoves in which the sulphur is melting, and not to house the workmen, who return nightly to their homes in the valley. Grass is rooted up from the surrounding hills for fuel; and by its aid the grey slate-like mineral, quarried from the pits, is rapidly melted into treacle-like consistence. This is continually stirred until all the earthy metal-like substance is deposited at the bottom, and the pure sulphur floats at the top. The sulphur is then ladled out into hooped wooden tubs, narrow at the mouth, and broad below, and left to cool. When cooled the bottom of the tub is knocked out, and the sulphur drops out in a conical cake, weighing about half a picul, and ready for exportation. The earthy refuse left in the pan is thrown away. The contractors engage to place the sulphur on board the vessel of the speculator at one dollar the picul (4s. 6d. per 113 lbs.), taking on themselves all risk of seizure, &c., on transmission down the river to the harbour.

The places of Formosa, from which we had to select a port for British trade, are the following, in order of sequence from south to north: (1) Ape’s Hill; (2) Taiwanfoo; (3) Hia-hoo Biver, Kia-e district; (4) Sookean River; (5) Woo-tse River; (6) Teek-tsan, or Choo-tsan; (7) Tamsuy; and (8) Kelung. Of these the 1st, 7th, and 8th alone were available for British shipping; and I recommended that, as Europeans had already commenced trade with Taiwanfoo, through Ape’s Hill, that that should be considered the port of the capital under a consular authority, and that Tamsuy and Kelung should be also thrown open under the superintendence of a vice-consul, and that both these authorities should be responsible either to a consul residing in the capital of Formosa or to one at the nearest port of China. But it was considered that Formosan trade was as yet too small to warrant so large an establishment; and as Tamsuy was the most promising port, and at the same time the nearest to China, it was decided to make a beginning there.

The exports from Tamsuy comprise the following articles:— Rice, indigo, coarse sugar, jute, ground-nut cakes, camphor, coal, grass-cloth fibre, wood, rattans, tea, rice-paper pith, pickled vegetables, small pulse, barley, wheat, and sulphur. On the coal and sulphur I have before remarked.

The tea grown on the Tamsuy Hills is not of a superior quality; but I have been informed, on the decision of three tea-tasters to whom I sent samples, that it would readily find a market in Australia, the Cape, and Singapore. It rates at a price of 10 dollars a picul (or 2l. 5s. per 133 lbs.), and is much imported by Chinese dealers at Amoy and Foochow, to mix with the better class of teas; and the mixed commodity is then sold to foreign merchants as con-