and walk the rest of the way. At 3.30 p.m. we commenced flying over the country at fully seven miles an hour, at the imminent risk of being shot into the paddy-fields which form a considerable part of the scenery, until arriving at Su-tin-ka, where passengers have to change. This station, like all others on the line, is delightfully Oriental and interesting to foreigners, being composed of a few bamboo sheds and mud-huts, where the tired traveller can sit on a Foochow pole and regale himself with congee, cake, and tea for the small sum of thirteen cash, to wit:

Outside these huts, and directly facing a coal shed and a stack of condemned "sleepers," a sort of closed sentry-box, with a hole cut under the roof, holds a large and important looking clock which has unfailingly gone wrong since its erection, and is only suffered to remain there presumably to remind the engine-drivers that they must frequently consult their own watches. After waiting for two hours, during which interval we had plenty of time to become acquainted with the hilly neighbourhoed, our train came ambling along, short of water and coal. We mounted to a car (provided for foreigners and Chinese officials) which was furnished with a bench on either side and one in the middle, and windows provided with canvas blinds that let the fresh air in plentifully and were not so brittle as glass.

Just as we were moving on two Chinese officials entered. One yawned very loudly and spat on the floor, while the other picked up a large stone which held the car door open, and, rubbing it on the seat to remove all dirt, placed it, Jacoblike, beneath his head and slept philosophically, enlivening the way with some phenomenal snoring, which he kept up until we entered the tunnel. Then he arose and struck a match for the purpose of ascertaining whether he was alone in that dark place, and would have gone

off to sleep and snore again had the train remained in the tunnel.

The Custom House at Keelung is by far the best building there and overlooks the beautiful bay. Looking due north and facing the verandah, a sandy beach is capped by small waves which make drowsy music as they ripple and break, falling back into the sea which stretches away past shoal and coral reef in deep tranquillity, only disturbed by gentle zephyrs from the north, which make the atmosphere pleasant and healthy during the warm months of summer. Here, close to the beach and looking out to sea, a white marble cross is erected to the honoured memory of eight brave men who went out in a terrific typhoon to save a shipwrecked crew, but were themselves lost, their bodies. being cast ashore near where the monument stands. The inscription is very simple:

It a quiet and beautiful place, and, were it better known, would be much visited by people from Amoy and Shanghai, who usually spend the season in Chefoo which for scenery and bathing facilities, cannot be compared with Keelung. The only foreign residents there were Lieut. Hecht (since dead), Captain Petersen, and, in the Customs, Messrs. Martin and Thogorsen, all of whom were exceedingly hospitable, whose residences snugly nestle under

a steep, bush-covered hill that rises to a height of about 200ft., and is scaled by a hewn stairway of 280 steps, the foot of which rests a few yards to the eastward of the Custom House. These steps lead up to the new fort (designed by and built under the supervision of the late Lieut. Hecht) which commands a grand range of the harbour and mounts a formidable battery of three 15, 18, and 24-ton Armstrong guns and three smaller quick-firing guns. This fort stands directly above and overlooks the blackened ruins of the silent fort below, where the shattered remains, of five 9-calibre Krupp guns which played so fiercely on the "La Galissonnière," under Admiral de Lespés, during the FrancoChinese trouble in 1885, have been left as maimed survivors of war, to sink with the crumbling walls and shell-pierced armaments of steel, all crippled and untouched, except by the hand of time since the day of their destruction. The sombre and blackened ruins of that fort, with their shell-wrecked guns and riddled walls, are indeed, well worthy of a visit.

In Keelung harbour, on the south shore of Mero Bay, is a very interesting cavern which is supposed to somehow connect with. the subterranean passage leading from the old Dutch Fort, or "Red Fort", as it is called, at Tamsui. Its entrance in the soft sandstone rock is above 9ft. in height and 5ft. in breadth, and has the appearance of having been originally excavated. No stalactites occur in this case, and explorers have only ventured in for a distance of 700 or 800 yards, and then, when firing a rifle, the sound reverberated a great distance; so that no one knows the length or proper direction of this cavern, which is well worthy of careful exploration. The Chinese say that the celebrated pirate Koxinga used it, storing his valuables and confining his prisoners there.

To the N.N.E. Palm Island rises from the blue sea, guarding the entrance of the bay, with a warm mantle of rich tropical vegetation, in the depths of which the creeper-covered ruins of an ancient Spanish fort arouse the romantic ideas of the modern traveller, and he thinks of, and can even picture, the armour-clad exiles who placed those crumbling battlements in the ages long agone.

Mr. E. Stevens, late Harbour-Master at Tamsui, has surveyed a considerable portion of Formosa, especially about the port of Tamsui, making some very valuable and authentic maps of it. Thanks to his indefatigable labours, the harbour has of late years been rendered far more safe and navigable, through his having the buoys and mooring-chains properly secured; and his tide-tables, marks, and gauges, placed in prominent positions, are of inestimable value to captains of vessels trading there. Before he had done this the harbour was considered very unsafe. During the typhoon. season, the river freshets often come down very suddenly, and sometimes carried ships out to the treacherous bar, where they were wrecked.

XX.-GOVERNORS LIU AND SHAO.

PREVIOUS

REVIOUS to the year 1886 Formosa was treated by the Chinese Government as a portion of the Fuhkien province, and the Viceroy of Foochow, its capital, governed the island as a fu, or prefecture, visiting this dependency once and sometimes twice a year. These visits were very agreeable and remunerative to the Viceroy, as his subordinate officials in Formosa never failed on these occasions to offer him their tribute of sycee and valuable goods, for which the poor people were taxed and "squeezed" heavily.

During the Franco-Chinese difficulty in 1884-85, Formosa was invested by the French, who repeatedly tried to effect a landing in Tamsui and Keelung, the former place being most gallantly and ably defended by the Chinese General Liu-ming Chuan, who baffled the invaders, and four years later was appointed to the Governorship of Formosa. For seven eventful years in the annals of that island he fulfilled with commendable energy this high and responsible office, to the entire approval of all, foreigners and Chinese-especially those interested in the progress of Western civilization and the advancement of its industries in the "Celestial Empire."

He did an immense deal of good in developing the resources of this island and encouraged foreign intercourse, adopting its modes and inventions, and soon had the railway laid from Tamsui to Keelung, a distance of twenty-seven miles, extending across the northern end of the island east and west, at a cost of £500 per mile. Another line has recently been constructed from Twatutia to the southern extremity of the island, a distance of 250 miles.