The Governor of Kiangsu remarks that the lowness of the land in Kiangeu renders it very liable to injury from an excessive rainfall. Things were already looking serious at the end of last summer, of account of the amount of water coming down from Chekiang, where violent rain storms had occurred. The creeks had not been cleared out of late years and could not carry their contents to the sea with sufficient rapidity. From the middle of September onwards heavy rain fell almost without ceasing day and night for a whole month. 'The creeks, the rivers, the lakes were filled to overflowing with' the local water, and the streams still kept pouring into them from the up-country districts, First the lower land was completely drowned, and then the higher ground was covered with water, just as the early rice was being cut and the later was turning yellow. The corn grew mouldy and sprouted; the cotton bolls rotted and fell off. From seven districts reports have been received all much to the same effect as what has been stated above. The memorialist and his staff have humbly offered prayers for fine weather, and he has directed the people everywhere to pay attention to their ditches and embankments. But the water still comes faster than it can be carried off.
the wet weather continues, the danger will be greater than human efforts can cope with, As the memorialist writes there are signs of the rain's clearing away; but the outlook is still uncertain.—Decree issued
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.