Present experiences of winter are mild in comparison with some incidents of former years still fresh in the men 1y f pany residents. There are no signs yet that we may see a repetition of the blizzard which struck the Settlement January, the 1th we believe, 1893. There was a great deal of ice on the river, and residents enjoyed eight days good skating on the creeks and low-lying country under frozen water, It is recalled that Mr. Osborn Middleton, manager of the China Merchants Wharf, had a bon fire of tar barrels on a pond near his residence in Kungping Road, and jets made merry round it until midnight. Steamers arriving w decorated with a conting of ice to the masts. The severity of the cold then prevailing is vividly suggested by the fact that for some days during that month teal were picked up by hand by those hardy enough to out in sampans off the Public Gardens.
Pootung Point presented a new danger in the form of a first class iceberg about 10ft. in height, which made an astonishing appearance there. Its rival appeared in Nanking Road, the rush of water from a damaged hydrant being frozen into a column of ice nearly eight feet high. The lowest temperature recorded was six-degrees Fahr., at the Waterworks, and the wind added to the terrors of an icy atmosphere.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.