CHINESE DELICACIES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] was astonished at the statement made by Mr. F. H. Balfour, in the Spectator of September 15th, that during twenty years' residence in China he had never once heard of dog's-flesh being used as an article of food. During a much shorter residence in that country, in my visits to Canton, I have repeatedly seen the carcases of dogs hanging in butchers' shops, with joints cut ready for cooking, and this must be the general experience of even the hundreds of English tourists who now pass yearly through Hong-kong and take a flying visit to Canton during the day or two they remain. I cannot say that I have actually tasted dog's-flesh. I could, however, take your correspondent to at least two restaurants at Canton. devoted solely to the supply of cat's-flesh, where he might see. the animals alive in cages round the shop, and their flesh cooking in a savoury stew in a cauldron, as well as being con- sumed by serious-looking Chinamen at small tables in the. place. Whilst on the subject, I may mention that in a street in Canton, close to where the Hong-kong steamer stops, there are at least a dozen shops where numbers of rats, split and. dried, are hung for sale; and I have in one instance actually seen a live rat banging by the tail for sale in the window of one of the dog-butchers' shops in the same town.—I am,..
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