The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-22 00:00:00

2,1•11 E BRITISTI EXPEDITION TO CHINA.

TAH-LIEN-iIIVAN BAY, JULY 12,

This noble bay, the grand rendezvous of the
Mritish expeditionary force, is situated at the
southern extremity of the promontory of
i Liau-tie-
shan, in the province of Liau-tong, and s distant
170 miles from the mouth of the Peiho. The en-
trance to this superb sheet of water is precisely
.five nautical miles across from point to point—a
little to seaward of the line connecting these two
points the islands of Outer and Inner Shan-shan-
tau act as breakwaters against the rolling billows
of the Whanghai, or Yellow Sea ; Outer Shan-
Shan-tau, the largest of the two, is a mass of rocks,
two and a half miles in length, and 500 feet in
height ; as nearly as possible in its centre is the
observation spot, from which the admirable survey,
made by Commander Ward, and the officers of her
Majesty's ships Actaeon and Dove, in the latter part
of February last, was commenced; this precise spot
is in lat. 38 deg. 52 min. 54 sec. N., lon. 121 deg.
48 min. 48 sec. E., the rise and fall of water at
spring tides being ten feet. The general direction
of the bay is from S.E. to N.W., and its extreme
length from the observation spot to its northern-
most shore is twelve miles ; from the entrance it
gradually widens to nine miles —the entire circuit
following the waterline is thirty-eight miles. The
average depth of water over its entire area is about
seven fathoms, with four and a half fathoms within
half-a-mile of the shore, from which depth it shoals
gradually in to the rocks and cliffs which confine
its waters (with the exception of a few small sandy
creeks) in all directions. Leaving Shan-shan-tau
astern, and passing close to West Entry Point, with
the ship's head pointing W.N.W., a run of five
miles along the rugged iron-bound shore brings
us to the principal anchorage called Victoria Bay.
Some six miles N.E. from this we come to Junk
Bay, where the water is shoal, and three shallow
sandy creeks, ice-bound in winter, afford a secure
place of refuge to the native craft which have given
the locality its name. Turning thence to the right,
with our head due east, we arrive, after running
over four miles along a flatter shore to Hand Bay,
beyond which, in the same direction, about four
miles inland, Sampson Peak lifts its majestic head
to the height of 2,213 feet, where its rugged, rocky,
storm-beaten pinnacles are enveloped in rolling,
fleecy clouds, while the crags of glittering granite
that jut out from its steep and shattered sides are
glistening in the blazing July sun. Turning once
more to the right, with our faces to this mighty
harbour's mouth, another run of three miles brings
us to Bustard Cove, a grass-grown wooded gorge
with a white sandy beach and a little trickling
stream of pure water. Another three miles in the
same course and we are in Odin's Bay, the second,
though in many respects the best, man-of-war an-
chorage. It is a deep cove, with four fathoms close
in to the land, and :completely sheltered at this
season of the year from the fitful squalls of the
prevailing monsoon; its southern-most boundary is
immediately inside East Entry Point, where the
cliffs are 450 feet in height. And now I have taken
you round the entire margin of this splendid haven,
in which at the present time thirty-two British
men-of-war, and one hundred and thirty-six sail of
British transports, are riding peacefully at anchor,
while eleven thousand British soldiers of all arms,
and of almost every race and nation that owns the
British rule, are peacefully encamped upon its dry
and dusty shores, or lounging away the time in
the transports aforesaid.

The first impressions of the surrounding country
are not very favourable in some respects, although
the scenery is by no means devoid of grandeur.
The water is completely hemmed] in by low cliffs,
scarcely worthy of so dignified an appellation, ge-
nerally not exceeding 30 feet in height, though in
some parts they are much loftier. Their line is
broken by a few sandy inlets, and the northern
shore is rather low and flat, the hills and crags in
the distance. On the eastern side, bare rugged hills
of a rusty reddish brown, devoid of wood or other
♦egetation, rise abruptly from the water's edge to
heights varying from 450 to 900 feet. Their steep
and naked sides are strewn with masses of a yel-
low brown slatey kind of rock (I regret that I am
unable to give you the geological formations),
which seems in a semi-decomposed state, and is
easily broken into large flakes ; the cliffs by the
water side are of the same description, abounding
in deep arched caverns, the abode of hundreds of

small blue rock pigeons, which furnish the sports-
men with a little amusement. The most approved
mode of bagging them is to row round the mouth
in a punt, and send a boy into the recesses with a
long bamboo to beat and shout, when often tweity
of these hard feathered birds fly out ; they are
strong on the wing, and are scarcely to be brought
down with anything less killing than a wire cart-
ridge. The traces of the furious action of the
waves upon the rocks far above high-water mark
betoken the presence of heavy seas in winter,
and doubtless when the north-east monsoon
is raging over this broad bay in the fulness
of its strength a swell must soon get up that
would drive the stoutest leviathan from her
moorings, and compel her to seek refuge under
the lee of the opposite shore. Behind this
range, •r rather these dotted lines of hills,
and in the direction of " Hand Bay," is an ex-
tensive steppe, called " Ten Mile Valley ; ". but of
this I shall speak further on. On the western or
left-hand side, looking from the entrance, there is
a broad slope of land, some two miles wide by seven
or eight long, gently rising from the cliffs to the
foot of the steep and lofty unbroken chain of moun-
tains, which shut in the scene, and form at once a
bold background to the picture and a valuable
shelter in winter against the fury of the northern
monsoon. Their summits stand out in sharp out-
line against the clear blue sky until the evening
mists gather round them. There are stony preci-
pices and monstrous blocks of upheaved rock
amongst their weather-worn acclivities and barren
peaks, that tell of mighty convulsions in bygone
ages ; while jagged rifts and deep nullahs, reaching
from their slopes and widening down to the sea,
seem to have been torn by the gigantic efforts of
volcanic agency. One can imagine the lightning
flashing and the thunder reverberating, and the
wild unfettered winds holding their headlong revels
in this desolate region, now for the first time the
trysting-place of European warriors. Very little
is known of the country about us ; nearly all has
yet to be learned, and even an ordinary forenoon's
stroll within sight of the shipping is replete with
novelty and interest.

On such a stroll I must now ask you to accom-
pany me. About the centre of Victoria Bay,
where a gentle inland sweep of the cliffs has left a
narrow margin of sand and shingle, a rude jetty of
rocks, boulders, and such other materials as were
to be found nearest at hand, has been hastily
thrown out into the water. This little patch of
sand presents the most favourable if not the only
practicable spot for landing that can be discovered
for several miles. The approach is somewhat dif-
ficult, even in perfectly calm wheather, owing to the
Innumerable sunken rocks that abound, and the
distance at which the water begins to shoal ; while
the ocean swell which rolls in from seaward after a
blow outside causes a surf to get up which threatens
the pier with annihilation, and places communica-
tion with the land by boats quite out of the ques-
tion. Tank-vessels, men-of-war launches, troopers
and long-boats froin the transports, laden with
water from the newly dug pits and wells are ,
and
de happily gentle
bump-
ing rather unpleasantly, with
ground-swell
float the": off
heaving of the
waiting pa-
tiently for the rising tide to
with their
kedges and gra
are hauling and
heavy burdens ; peels are laid out,
keep their
and one half of their sturdy crews
heaving upon tackles and wenches, to
stranded craft from being set higher up upon
the
beach by the lifting of the sea and the sweep of the
current. An anxious, sunburnt lieutenant, who is
acting as beachmaster—no en viable billet on such
occasions—is running about in mud-stained gar-
ments, soaked through to the knees, watching the
advance of the rising flood that will relieve him of
his
weighty charge ; the spare hands from the
watering Parties are dabbling about after rock
oysters, or, Pipe in mouth, are scraping, scrubbing,
scouring, and washing masts and oars and every
imaginable
description of boat
littitot wow, litunin_ .
igear, to say nothing
net and white trowaers. Next