A few days before the combined attack of the allied forces upon Canton, the immense floating population moored off that city began to move towards Chow-chan. Boat by boat disappeared, until only a few sampans, manned by the most daring thieves on the river, remained, and these had a pretty lively time of it, as the sentries on board the war-ships would fire at them whenever they approached within a certain distance of those vessels. It seemed strange that those who had the best opportunity of judging what the western barbarians could do were the last to abandon their positions, the water population having been warned to leave ten days before. Mr. Thompson performed his celebrated feat of "bill-sticking under difficulties," yet it was not until the Cantonese came swarming out of the city that those who lived along the water's edge began to move their property out of the way of the barbarian's guns. Yeh took matters very coolly, and seemed quite indifferent to the imposing force brought against him, so the watermen, who were a bold insolent set, composed of the dregs of the population, imagined he was right in his assertion, that the Fanquis would only talk and not fight; but the exodus of the merchants opened their eyes, and as all of them wanted to get under weigh at the same time, the waterside presented a more animated appearance than usual. Many of the merchants who owned wooden stores built upon piles near the water's edge, had tanks placed under those edifices at low tide, so that as the water rose it lifted the buildings clear, and huge stores were thus floated off, and towed away to a place of safety, in company with theatres, flower boats, restaurants, and the hundred and one other kinds of boats then common upon the river. At one point so many houses were thus removed, that the outer wall of the city, usually hidden by a mass of buildings, was entirely exposed, offering a splendid target for the guns of H.M.S. Ruff, which was moored immediately opposite. Canton is situated upon the river of that name, and opposite to the city is the Island of Honan, which, with other similar islands, divide the river into two parts--one to the left, running down towards Wampoa, and the other to the right, which flows past Chow-chan creek; these unite before they reach the Bocca Tigris, and both branches or sides are, in common, called the Canton River.