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rneht, as to render it difficult to pafs through without danger
o f overfetting or finking fome o f them; a danger, however,
to which they feemed quite infenfible. Veffels o f a larger
defcription, and various in the ihape o f their hulls and rigging,
from twenty tons burden and upwards, to about two hundred
tons, were obferved in confiderable numbers, failing along the
coaft o f the continent, laden generally with fmall timber,
which was piled to fuch a height upon their decks, that no
extraordinary force o f wind would feem to be required to
overturn them. Beams -of wood, and other pieces that were
too long to be received upon the deck o f a fingle ihip, were
laid acrofs the decks o f two veffels laihed together. We faw
at leaft a hundred couple thus laden in one fleet, keeping clofe
in with the coaft, in order'to be ready, in cafe o f bad weather,
to put into the neareft port, being ill calculated to refift a ftorm
at fea. T he ihips indeed that are deftined for longer voyages
appear, from their Angular conftru&ion, to be very unfit to
contend with . the tempeftUous feas o f China. The general
form o f the hull, or body o f the ihip, above water, is that o f
the moon when about four days old. The bow, or forepart, is
not rounded as in ihips o f Europe, but is a fquare flat furface,
the fame as the ftern ; without any projefting piece o f wood,
ufually known by the name o f cutwater, and without any keel.
On each fide o f the bow a large circular eye is painted, in imitation,
I fuppofe, o f that o f a fiffi.- The two ends-of the ihip
rife to a prodigious height above the deck. Some carry two,
fome three, and others four mails. Each o f thefe confifts of
a fingle piece o f wood, and confequently not capable o f being
occafionally reduced in length, as thofe o f European ihips.
The