Between the 5th and 6th months of the present year (June-July) the region lying near the Northern and Southern bank of the Yangtze, in the provinces of Kiangsu and Anhui, was visited by calamitous and disustrons inundations, In x word Sha-chow, within the jurisdiction of Tant'ushien (in Chinkiang prefecture) with its seventy-two "'chous" orlop-lying distrie'sin Kiang-ssu province, and the banks of the Great River in Anhui province, together with the sub-prefecture of Hochou at once became a © Watery Kingdom"; whilst the fv of Chiangtu, "Kanch'wn and Ich'éng (Yangchou prefecture) and the Yangtze Dank districts of Tsaongét'ing, Shuangyent'ung, ete., were all completely flooded, Tepresenting one great, seemingly end sheet of water.' From' these disasters in: calculable numbers of human beings were drowned, whilst those who escaped drowning did so by climbing to the tops of trees and house tops only to be threatened by famine and hunger. On the surface of Changhva creek, belonging to Chin-chiang hsien, alone, there have already fiented down several thousand dead bodies over a thousand of which have already been brought to land at the instance of local philanthropists and decently buried. Several thousand dord bodies have also been brought down by the floods to Kiang-
Inundations of the 29h year of Tao Kuang (1849) tave there been such floods as now aft of the unfortunate provinces of Kingsu and Avhui. Even the sufferings caused by the burssingof the binks of th Yel ow River at Chéngehou, in Honan province, some years ago, did not come anywherene+r the present floods in gravity and far-reaching importance. In the present instance the calamity aff-cts the upper reaches of the Yangtze, beginning with Cliat'ing prefect ture in Szechuan province down to the lower reaches, to South Tunychou and Haimen, Kiangsu province. The region bordering a'on the banks of the Yangize has always been the breeding ground of rates, bandits, and desperadoes, hence if there be any delay in providi~g help and relief to the flood sufferers in that vicinity it is to be greatly feared that failing any prospects of immediate relief the suff-ters will be compelled to join the ranks of the bandits and pirates, thereby threatening the peace of the country to an incalculable degree baffling description, An appeal for ait from the charitable of this country and of all nations is therefore now urgently made in view of the limitless disasters which threaten this part of the Empire, for the present, und the prayer is made that no delay be made in. sending the necessary funds and relief to the sufferers of these calamitous floods.
Since writing the above a telegram was received at noon, on Sunday, by committee of Chinese philanthropical gentlemen here, from their special agent kiukiang, that over 30,000 flood refugees had arrived at that port "who have no prospects of relief or food and are therefore dying of sheer hunger. The sight i pitiable and heartrending in the extreme, sincerely pray that you will hasten to drapsmit by- telegraph the necessary funds, so that measures may be taken at once to save the lives of the hunger-
It appeared that the charitable gentlemen above noted had sent an agent with $12,000 as a first instalment to see what could be done in giving hein to the famine sufferers in the afflicted regions. The agent had got as far as Kiukiang only when the 30,000, odd, refugees arrived there also. The $12,000 he had with him was manifestly insufficient to do anything for such a great number requiring help, and, as he also reported, "I dared not open my purse strings for fear of being tora to pieces and murdered by those of the refugees who might not have received even a mite of the $12,000 ut my command—so great was the distress and number of these floot refugees."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.