Tue prevalent belief in Chinn respecting the connection between physical phenomena and political events ins been productive of at any rate one good result, It has induced the Chinese to kop rigid and, in a mensure, accurate records of all events of a striking nature in both astronomy and meteorology, and these cannot but be of value to historians and scientific men alike. If a comet is said to have appeared on a certain day in a certain portion of the heavens, a simple astronomical alculaat once guide the student of tory to the discovery of some important date which may give the required clue to many a disputed point in the science of chronology. Similarly the record of geological upheavals, overflowings of the Yellow River or the Yang-tsze, and such-like distarbances, places n valuable key in the hands of those who study the lund we live in from 'a physical or scientific standpoint. It may be left to curious and speculative minds to range through the dim corridors of Chinese history, and try to find the corresponding political event of which the physical occurrence was supposed to be the portent. Such a compilation would be more interesting, perhaps, than useful in any nse, the task does not come within our province. Let us content ourselves with recapitulating some of the more important nataral events tha' have occurred in China during the past two thousand years. Many of these appear at first sight to partake of the apocryphal; but there is no out that much that appeared miracalous and therefore portentous in the days of Chou, Tein, avd Han, was explicable enough, had there only been the requisite amount of natural philo-soply at baud to bear upon it. For instance, we rend of " red rain" fallen in the neighbourhoods of Nanking and K'ai-feng Fa in the years 300 and 1336 A.D., when the Western Tsin and Yuen dynasties held sway, The water which fell is said to have stained cloth with the colour of blood; and even in our own day, some seven or eight years ago, the same phenomenon was reported as having occurred in certain districts of Kiang-si. The explanation of this is probably as simple as that of the red snow mentioned ud observed in recent times in the polar and alpine regions. Black rain—as black as ink—fell, according to native chroniclers, during the reign of Hang Woo, the first Emperor of the Mings; and the river Yang-toze is credited with having suddenly assumed a crimson hue on more than one ace These pheno mena it must be confessed are not so easy of explanation. It is possible that they may have grown out of some metaphorical expression too deep to be understanded of the people; though there is no reason why critics who believe in a similar metamorphosis anciently recorded of the River Nile should hesitate to accept a story which attributes the same marvel to the Yang-tsze. The principal scourges to which China seems to have been sub. ject, about which there can be no doubt, are famines, droughts, inaudations, and the ravages of insects, These are said to have been of constant andalwost regular recurrence. Earth quakes, though apparently not doing any great mischief, except in one instance when the marble pillars of the Ewperor'x Palace wore thrown down in the reign of Hsiao Wu Ti of the Eastern Tsin dynasty, appear to have occurred more frequently than is generally supposed to have been the case in China, Fur greater are the ravages that. Lave been caused by storms. These have constantly destroyed the crops of entire districts in a fow hours, and are described ay violent in the extreme, hav-been Frequently accompanied with thunderbolts and showers of destructive hail, Indeed it seems wonderful that the unfortunate people ever rouped any harvests at all, when we rend the list of forces arrayed against them. IF there were no mandations, sweeping away the produce of their fields, to say nothing of the houses in which they lived and occasionally the men them. selves, there was pretty sure to be a drought; ouf not a drought, a swarm of grasshoppers ov of locusts would devastate the plains, selecting, as with sort of infernal instinct such creatures do, the richest and most fertile districts as their prey. The sufferings of the people in such fatal yours are said to have reduced them frequently to cannibalism. They preyed upon each other; they fed themselves on corpses. On three occasions an army of rats invaded the country. In one instance these insatiable vermin, travelling from one place to another, attempted a passage of the Wei river, and were fortunately drowned, their carcases choking up Ube banks of the stream for several days. after their destruction, On the other occasion, however, they were more succesefal. Myriads of the crontures appeared in the neighbourhood of Nanking from the Ha-ka aug provinces. They are said to have crossed the brooks and rivers in their course during the night, by making themselves into a moving bridge—each animal seizing the tail of the one in front of him with his teeth, and so swimming across; and on arrival at the other side. they threw themselves upon the crops and devoured them, Another time they effected the passage of the Yellow River. Among the minor plagues of China in times past are recorded thick, yellow fogs, described in terms that would do full justice to the November fogs in London; excess of snow in winter; cold, biting winds in the summer months; violent gales, sometimes 60 charged with dust as to render it impossible to distinguish a man two paces off; hailstones as large as a man's fist; groanings and rumblings underground, and under the waters of the Yellow River; and an occasional landslip, In the year 5 of Chévg TS of the Ming dynasty we read of a rain of earth, which was no doubt a dust-storm of preternatural violence, and on various other occasions of Une appearance on the ground of dew, as sweet as sugar to the taste, Only a few woke ago we heard of summer-snow' bay. ing fallen near Soochow, and the terror of the people in consequence. It is not often that we hear of pestilence, although in the reign of the Inst Ming Emperors one occurred of such severity that it is suid there were not enough survivors to bury the dond, and that a fow years earlier the rouds were blocked ap with corpses; all of which is no doubt greatly exaggerated, Still it would be dificult to point out which of the Yen Pingnes of Egypt has not visited the Chinese, according to their own account, in ove form or auvther, and ench such visitation ig regarded by them us o separate and distinct indica tion of the displeasure of Heaven.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.