We are perfectly justified, after our oxperience of the past week, in alluding to the state of the weather at Shang-bai. We have all of us been informed, and in the information lies a certain modicum of truth, that Shanghai was the last created of earthly localities; and we have moreover heard it jokingly hinted, that when once the tap was turned on there was danger of its running being neglected, till other mote pleasant spots were looked after. And verily, the tap has for the none been left ranning on us with a vengeance. Looking at the climate of any particular.spot la China, nothing seems more fantastic than the distribution of weather. A noted sinologue, having occasion to visit in his capital the late Viceroy of Nanking, and finding; the cotiversation flagging, asked his Excellency if it were always raining in the city. Probably struck with the originality of the question, the old Viceroy applied toa Taoutai who sat very uncomfortably at a little distance; the Taoutai in turn passed on the question to an old. Chehien, who, had held office prior to the capture of the cil by the rebels, and who naturally have been expected to know someth: of the weather: of Nanking, Even he was struck with the. enquiry, and was unable to give a definite reply. times trained; and sometimes itdidu't." was the atiswer at last fetched up, and gravely reported from Chebien to Taoutai, Taoutai to Viceroy, and Vicorey to inquisitive visitor. We may safely predicate the same of Shanghai, or indeed any other spot in China; namely, that sometimes it rains and some ti it does not; but as to the probability or the reverse, of its raining at any one time or period of the year, we are as unable as the old Chehien to givea reasonable reply. Sometimes we have dry summers, sometimes we have wet ones; the writer remembers once for upwards of four months having only soon three or four heavy showers, and again a fine unclouded day has been a arity for nearly as long a period. But though there is thus an impossibility of forecasting for joy special locality the presence or absence of rain, we are quite safe in predicting, for avy summer, heavy rains or floods somewhere in China. More especially since the opening of the Yangtsze to Hankow, has this fact been forced on us. Sometimes that unfortunate settlement has been submerged, sometimes it has not. Sometimes the puzzled observer at the meeting of the limpid streams, felt called on to revile the Yangtsze in front; sometimes the Han stole a march on him from behind.. Sometimes the river. was high at Hankow-and low at Kiukiang, and sometimes exactly the reverse took place. Bursting of embankments, opening of subterranean communication, melting of snows on the Siench-shan, were all in turn called on to account for the annual Yangtsze floods; yet the following year was pretty certain to upset the experience of the year before. Now it cannot be but that these things have a reason, and their very apparent capriciousness leads us look for this reason beyond merely local causes. It stands to reason that, every, summer, the southerly monsoon carries with it from the tropics a vast amount of water in suspension, and it equally follows that, in cooled down to a certain temperature, this water must be deposited in the form' of rain. In India, and many other countries where monsoons prevail, the presence of high mountain ranges determines the fall of rain, and causes a regular rainy season. In China no elevation of sufficient height exists within the limits of the monsoon winds. Hence the northern edge is continually varying. Last year an unusually stormy monsoon prevailed, to latitudes far north of the average line of demarcation. Steady monsoon winds prevailed over Shantung and as far as the Gulf of Pechili; and with their northern edge coincided thereat fall of rain, which has caused so great a famine in the metropolitan province. In 1869 the northern edge coincided more or less accurately with the north bank of the Yangtze, and millions of people along its valley felt more or less the pressure of famine. 1867 and 1868 were flood years at Hankow—in one case the floods apparently coming' from the Tungting, in the other mainly from the Poyang. In the latter year Shanghai seems to have been for, a great portion of the summer outside the limits of the monsoon, curiously enjoying a summer at the same time fine and cool. The subject is of suffi cient interest for the Meteorologists to take up. Although past are difficult to collect, be the case in fature, if all weather reports as they arrive are tabulated. the Chinese records at Tientsin, which seems the farthest limit to which the monsoon ever extends, seem to point to a cycle of 17 or 18 years as marking the extremes of monsoon range; possibly some similar rule would apply to intermediate regions. The extensive region of the monsoon of 1871 was marked by a series of typhoons unusually severe and numerous; it may possibly occur that, for a like reason, severe weather along the coast has been the usual accompaniment of floods in the Peiho.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.