Ir is difficult to describe in precise language, the difference between the climate of Shanghai and that of the Gulf of Pechibli. Thermometer and baron meter, aided by all the letters of the meteorologists' record, fail to explain why in the one life is enjoyable, and in the other little better than a burden, for two or three months of the year. 'A short trip will, however, practically demonstrate that some other column should be added to the register, if we are to learn from tables what the climate of any station may be. It is, for instance, almost impossible to describe that strange power of the sun, too familiar to us here as glare. It is not light, for in many places the light-giving rays are -in excess of what they are in Shanghai; nor is it heat, for even the solar radiation thermometer refuses to mark any extraordinary degree of solar heat on the hottest day. Whatever the indefinable cause is, it seems to end a little way from Shanghai, and to, form @ line of demarcation, clear and distinct, between the climate of the north and the south of China. It almost seems as if, in summer, the plain of the Yangtsze were the receptacle whereinto all that was foul and disagreeable from the equator upwards, was periodically emptied. For three months, the southerly winds of the monsoon come laden with moisture and every disagreeable matter they have been able to pick up on their long journey. As they cannot succeed in carrying their load much further, they have to drop it in the district between the Yangtsze and the steppes of Mongolia; and Shanghai comes in for more than its share. It would seem indeed as if, on the way, the amount of nastiness has been continually increasing; for certainly Shanghai, during a portion of the summer at least, enjoys a bad pre-eminence beyond the other ports to the South. It is however fortunate that means of escape are gradually being opened, by which the small distance really intervening between a Shanghai summer and good weather, can be "readily overcome. Not to speak of Chefoo, our present sanitorium and fortunate for the greater portion of the year in lying beyond the range of the southerly monsoon, the neighbourhood of Newchwang of. fords, in Haichow, a locality possessing all the charms of the sea-side combined with rich and beautiful scenery. Newchwang is however so difficult of access, that its advantages have remained unavailed of. Eastward, on the Gulf of Tartary, a still more favourable climate " prevails, but hitherto the locality has been even less accessible than Newchwang. The new line of Russian steamers from Hankow to the Amoor will however probably afford, in the coming year, the means of more ready access. Vlddivostock, as a port, is still in its infancy. It is as devoid of roads as the most out-of-the-way of Chinese ports. The forest comes down in fact to the town, and the country is still in a state of nature. Slow though the Russians are to- improve, its situation will doubtless in the course of time raise it to an important station. Regular communication will do much to develope its resources, and its ready accessibility from Shanghai will be always in its favor. The European constitution requires some change from the depressing effects of Shanghai summer weather; but, with the means of a ready escape from the worst portion of the season, there should be no more healthy locality for European residents.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.