236 April 1855- Loo Choo tory may be expected to be found, while the "Vincennes" generally drops anchor on- ly in sea-ports which have been previously well-searched. We are experiencing rather hot weather During this visit, the temperature averaging 80°. I took occasion one day to visit the city of Shui, the capital of the island, which I had not seen on the last visit. I started with a friend from Napa, and after walk- ing a mile or more on a causeway a- cross the paddy fields, we climbed some hills on a road paved with small beach -worn boulders. The city is concealed by trees when viewed from this (S.W.) side, and the great gate burst rather suddenly upon our view as we rose upon the level ground upon which this part of the city is placed. Enter the city by the central one of the three ports, which has an inscription over it forbidding any but Grandees to pass that way, we passed along a street bordered by high stone-walls which prevented the passengers from gazing upon the enclosed Court-yards or gardens with which each house seems provided. Many of these very solid walls 237 were of singular construction, for although with smooth and level surface, their component stones were not squared as in our structures, but seem- ed joined to each other by their natural irregu- lar surfaces of cleavage, so nicely adapted to each other, that this meandering lines of junction seemed like mere cracks upon the surface of a solid rock. We were evidently in an aristocratic part of the town, for no shops, nor even mean or indifferent looking buildings were seen, and much of the space appeared to be laid out into pleasure-grounds. Everything had a silent, dead appearance, and few people were seen stirring—than few in the streets. At last we reached the Vic-roy's Palace, a large and ancient-looking pile of solid-walls, sometimes 50 or 60 ft in height, with sloping fronts and crenations meant to form something like bastions. It resembled somewhat the medieval forts of Europe, and would seem to be the work of some more energetic race than that now living here, who have in many points of character, perhaps de- generated from their ancestors. Within these castle-walls are the buildings of the royal household which are of the usual slight