TIEN-TSIN, a town of China, in the province of Chi-li, at the junction of the Pei-ho with the Grand Canal, 70 miles S.E. of Pekin, of which it is the fort. It is walled, and built nearly in the form of a square, each side of which is about a mile in length, and has a massive gateway in the centre. From these gates the principal streets of the town proceed in straight lines, meeting in a kind of pagoda in the middle. The streets, unlike those of the southern towns in China, are broad and well paved; but the houses are mean, built in general of unburned brick, and in many cases only of mud. The only public buildings are some temples of no great architectural pretensions, and a few official residences. The Pei-ho is crossed by a bridge of boats, and its banks are lined on both sides with the suburbs of the town. The chief traffic in the streets is in water and fuel; and the whole place has a very decaying and impoverished aspect. It is said to have been formerly a place of much opulence and trade; but as it depended mainly on the trade carried on between the capital and the other parts of the empire by the great canal, it has declined in prosperity since the inundation of the Yellow River has broken the banks of the canal, and forced this trade into
other channels. A treaty was concluded at Tien-tsin in 1858 by Lord Elgin, on behalf of England, with the celestial empire; and at the same time separate treaties were executed by the plenipotentiaries of France, Russia, and the United States. The chief provisions of the British treaty were, the residence of a minister at Peking, permission to travel and trade in all parts of the empire, the opening of several new ports, and the settlement of the question of transit dues. The population of Tien-tsin and its suburbs is stated at 500,000. (See Oliphant's Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan, Edinburgh and London, 1859.)
TIERRA- (or TERRA) DEL-FUEGO (The Land of Fire), an island, or rather a group of islands, off the southern extremity of South America, separated from the mainland by the strait of Magellan; between S. Lat. 52. 40. and 56., W. Long. 63. 40. and 75. It consists of one large island called Eastern Tierra-del-Fuego, or King Charles' South Land; two smaller islands to the south, Navarin and Hoste, separated from the former by Beagle Strait; and two to the west, Clarence Island and Santa Inés Island, or the Land of Desolation; besides a number of much smaller size, the most important of which is that containing Cape Horn, at the extreme south of the group. The largest island may be regarded as a prolongation of the continent of South America, and it resembles in most of its characteristics the neighbouring country of Patagonia. The eastern part is low and level, the coast sandy and little indented with bays and creeks; while the west coast is rugged, mountainous, irregular in its outline, intersected by long arms of the sea, and lined with a multitude of small islands and isolated rocks. It seems almost as if the current that sweeps round from the Pacific to the Atlantic had worn and frittered away the edge of the continent into the form it now has. The principal summits in Tierra-del-Fuego are—Mount Sarmiento, 6900 feet, and Mount Darwin, 6800 feet high; and the general height of the chains is between 4000 and 5000 feet. Their lower slopes are covered with stunted forests of beech and birch, above the limits of which there is an expanse covered with small alpine plants, while the extreme summits are covered with perpetual snow. In some places large glaciers descend to the water's edge, contrasting in their deep-blue colour with the pure white of the snow and the dark masses of the forests. The climate is exceedingly inclement; the temperature is low; and wind, rain, snow, and sleet succeed each other in an almost unvaried round. The vegetables and the animals of the country are few in number. Among the former, such plants as fuchsia and veronica flourish and grow to a much larger size than in England, and a sort of fungus that grows on the beech-trees forms a principal article of food to the inhabitants; and of the latter, guanacos, deer, foxes, otters, bats and mice are, besides whales and seals, the only specimens of mammalia. Birds, however, are numerous, especially sea-fowl. The natives in the north-east part of the large island resemble those of Patagonia; those of the rest of Tierra-del-Fuego are of much less stature, ill-proportioned, and very ill-looking. They live in wretched wigwams, and support a miserable existence by hunting and fishing. Tierra-del-Fuego was discovered in 1520 by Magalhães, who named it "the land of fire," from the number of watch-fires visible by night along the coast.