Old inhabitants with the privilege of their order, scoff at the thrilling accounts of the ice blockade of Tien: tsin, 'They even temper their delight at being reminded of Mr. Lionel Pratt's adventure on an ice floc' near Chefoo in 1901, with demur to the notion that no parallel can be cited. In January 1893, they say, a blizzard swept the whole China coast and actually spread its influence to the vicinity of the equator, in that the temperature of Singapore was lower ed by five degrees. In Shanghai Waterfowl were picked up frozen but alive from the waters of the Whangpoo, a Norwegian steamer, the Storkordisk, came into harbour so foverweighted with ice that she sank in her moorings. Foochow reported a snowfall on January 15—to the depth of between six and nine inches: according to this journal's correspondent—and it beat a record of half an Inch which had stood for thirly-four years. Those two falls. wave Foo-Gkow all the snow it had seen the space of 250° years. In Hong Kong the thermometer fell to 27 degrees, the hills were covered with snow or with coatings of icicles. Ships came into Shanghai from Amoy. with ice on their rigging. Tehang reported skating and a. temperature of 21 degrees F, Chinkiang had six inches of snow. Swatow had not had such weather for thirty years and shivered in two degrees below freezing point. The Siccawei Observatory ventured to assert that the night of Sunday, January 15 was the coldest on record. 'The mean tem perature was 21.2 degrees F, (—6°C) and on the Monday morning the minimum temperature was 104 degrees F. (12°C) the lowest read-Jing "since 1873 from which date the' records have been kept." At the Waterworks the reading was eight degrees, F. Even in those days the oldest inhabitants were alert, but had to admit defeat, Archdeacon Moule, for example, remembered a cold winter of 1862) when snow was on the ground three weeks <...and. hockey was played broad moat of the ly at the Nort Gate, But the cold was not nearly' Intense as this blizzard. "T cannot re= member anything like it Here or at home.
Amoy was apparently behind Foo chow and Shanghai for it had its great snowfall on January 17,.of six hours' duration. 'The Volunteer Fire Brigade here, in turning out to deal witha call' in the French Ceneession, found themselves hampered by the frozen water. Although "Torrent" managed to reach the Mi frst, followed promptly by "Deluge, "Mih-ho-long" and "Victoria." they were unable to prevent thirty houses
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.