Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

186 BRITAIN AT WORK. Port of London. Six of these are under the control of one company, namely, the London and India Docks Company, formerly known as the London and India Docks Joint Com- mittee. The clocks are St. Katharine, London, West India, East India, Victoria and Albert, and Tilbury. The remaining two docks are the Surrey Commercial and Millwall, and they are managed by separate companies. The St. Katharine Docks are situated near Photo. Cassell & Co., Ltd. UNLOADING CORN. the Tower Bridge, and have an area of twenty- three acres, thirteen of land and ten of water. They are accessible only to small steamers ■employed in a coasting or Continental trade, although the warehouses receive some of the costliest articles coming into the Port ■of London. Large quantities of tea are stored here, it being estimated that no fewer than 867,000 packages, weighing 36,000 tons, are thus dealt with annually. When the packages of tea are received at the warehouses they are sorted, sampled, and marked by officers of the company and of the Customs. Eventually the tea is arranged into “ shops,” a shop consisting of three or more packages. The lids are then removed, and the contents exposed for the examination of the brokers. Ceylon tea is “bulked,” that is, turned out on the floor and thoroughly mixed. It is no unusual thing for 200 tons to be thus reposing in a huge heap on the floor at one time. Marble is received here from Italy, and such articles as wool, bark, gutta- percha, etc., are also stored. Ad- joining- is the East Smithfield depot, used for both imports and exports. About 100,000 tons ot goods pass annually through this place. The London Docks, which are separated from those of St. Katharine by Nightingale Lane, are nearly a mile in length, and occupy a hundred acres, forty oi which are water. They have vast vaults and warehouses, with a floor area of about 3,000,000 square feet, and a storing accom- modation of 170,000 tons. In the vaults there is room for 105,000 pipes of wine. Miscellaneous goods are received, including wool wine, brandy, sugar, dried and green fruits, ivory, spices, bark, gums, metals, drugs, pepper, rice, coffee, cocoa, isinglass, etc. Ivory, when received at the docks, is weighed and carefully examined to see that no stone or metal has been inserted at the base of the tusks to increase weight ; this deception is sometimes re- sorted to by natives. Some of the tusks are often nine feet in length, and weigh 180 lb. each. Cinnamon, on receipt at the docks, is, after being examined by merchants, packed into bundles by a special machine. The accom- modation for wool at the London and St. Katharine Docks occupies a floor area of 1,400,000 feet; and frequently as many as 1,400 labourers are employed in this depart- ment alone. It is estimated that 1,600,000 bales of wool, weighing 250,00c tons, and of the value of £20,000,000, is received