We have just passed through the severest typhoon known to the oldest people of this region. This visitation is felt greatly because of the very light ries crop just harvested. It is time for planting the second crop, but the farmers are busy repairing field' boundaries. The fruit crop (mainly dragon's eye, fun gang) is ruined, and even many of the precious pill trees, as they fondly term it, have been destroyed. Food is going up in price and there are few happy faces te be seen. The force of the wind is illustrated by the prostrate stone arches—widows' monuments—some of which had stood the storms of two centuries. The vast fertile plain was an immense lake for three daye, during which time communication in nearly every direction was cut off. The wire to Foochow will take a week or more, Tear, to restore. Preceding this typhoon we had an unusually long spell of hot, dry weather, followed by about two weeks of heat and regular afternoon thundershowers and cool nights.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.