The good, old days were not such 'a bad period after all when the con~ trast is applied to the present heat wave, which, reluctantly as most people are to refer to it, remains the dominating topic of conversation in 'Shanghai at present. Siccawei's records do not go back farther than 1878, the year in which the Observi tory' was established, and the June maxima exceeded anything Siccawei had recorded in its files. Going back alittle farther to the frst week in July in the years 1867, 1868, 1869 and 3870 Shanghai residents were enjoying a comparatively cool spell because, according to the "North-China Herald," never did the temperature uring' that week exceed 93. This was on July 5, 1867, but this was in reality an imposition for the highes: temperature during that week during the three succeeding years the thermometer never rose over 84 degrees. As a matter of fact, during the period under review, the average was somewhere about 76 degrees. with as low a5 74 degrees on July 6, 1869. But possibly in those days' the hardy Shanghai residents were not troubled with theories of sun spots and other meteorological devices to explain that was really hot,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.