All steamships plying between Chungking and Hochuan' have ended operations, as a result of the inordinately high' level attained by. the Kahing River during the past few aays, while junks with cargoes, of rice and other commodities have stopped coming down the river, loss than eight villages were swept away when a river in the Suining district which feeds the Kailing River, entering it near Hochuan, overflowed its banks. Damage to crops and vilizges has been estimated at least $6,000,000 and this figure. will probably grow larger when com= plete details become available.
On the other hand, drought 4s affecting many parts of the province, Reports have been coming in of crops either partially or completely damaged by a scorching "sun, and side by side with these reports come further reports concerning a rise in the price of rice. Altars have been erected all over the place, and monks, abbots and Tagist priests have been asked to pray for Fain, Some years ago, an American inventer endeavoured to interest farmers in an invention whereby cit= cular rings were fred into storm clouds, "Which he asserted" would produce "a fall" of rain within a few minutes. The Chinese counterpart occurred at Kingan a few days ago, when the city govern-assent authorities fired large native guns into the air in an attempt to secure rainfall. The report does not say whether the attempt was suecessful oF not.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.