(N. and Q., China and Japan, I. 170; Fortune, I. 286;
Doolittle.)
NOTE 2. - Note the one rudder again. (Supra, Bk. I. ch. xix. note 3.) One
of the shifting masts was probably a bowsprit, which, according to
Lecomte, the Chinese occasionally use, very slight, and planted on the
larboard bow.
NOTE 3. - The system of water-tight compartments, for the description of
which we have to thank Ramusio's text, in our own time introduced into
European construction, is still maintained by the Chinese, not only in
sea-going junks, but in the larger river craft. (See Mid. Kingd. II. 25;
Blakiston, 88; Deguignes, I. 204-206.)
NOTE 4. - This still remains quite correct, hemp, old nets, and the fibre of
a certain creeper being used for oakum. The wood-oil is derived from a
tree called Tong-shu, I do not know if identical with the wood-oil trees
of Arakan and Pegu (Dipterocarpus laevis).
["What goes under the name of 'wood-oil' to-day in China is the poisonous
oil obtained from the nuts of Elaeococca verrucosa. It is much used for
painting and caulking ships." (Bretschneider, Hist. of Bot. Disc. I. p.
4.) - H.C.]
NOTE 5. - The junks that visit Singapore still use these sweeps. (J. Ind.
Arch.
