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the fire; and the combustion thus produced is so intense that the caldrons are rendered useless in a few months. A very severe and destructive earthquake occurred in Sze-chuen, during 1817, and another of the same descrip

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tion is remembered at Peking, as having happened in 1731. The slight shocks which have been only just perceived in the neighbourhood of Canton were probably nothing but distant vibrations, communicated from some

Joo-ee, formed of Jade

portion of that line of active volcanoes which extends from the north-east extremity of Asia through Japan, Loo-choo, Formosa, Luconia, and other islands, to Java.

We may conclude with noticing some of the principal minerals of China not already described. At the head of these must be placed the famous Yu stone, being nephrite or jade, of which was composed the Joo-ee, or emblem of amity, sent by the late emperor to the Prince Regent.

The colour is a greyish white, passing through intermediate grades into a dark green.* "It is semi-transparent and cloudy, fractures splintery, and is infusible without addition." The country in which it is principally found is said to be Yun-nân, where they discover it in nodules within the beds of torrents. This stone is so extremely hard, that the Chinese, in cutting it, use their powder of corundum, sometimes called adamantine spar, as they do in cutting lenses for their spectacles from rockcrystal. The corundum is met with in granitic rocks, of which it is sometimes a component part. Its specific gravity is about 4, and its hardness very great. From the subjoined analyses, stated in centesimal ratios by Dr. Kidd, it appears that the constituents of corundum, as well as its specific gravity, are nearly the same as those of emery, which is used for the like purpose by European lapidaries.§

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* A very large specimen may be seen at the British Museum, cut into the form of a tortoise, and found imbedded in the banks of the Jumna.

† Dr. Abel.

This is very abundant, and the best comes from Fokien. § Mineralogy, vol. i. p. 153.

As China abounds in the primitive rocks, it is consequently rich in metals. Gold is obtained chiefly in the native state from the sands of the rivers in Yun-nân and Sze-chuen, near the frontiers of the Burmese country, which is well known for the quantity of gold it produces. What is called the Kin-shâ-keang, or "Gold-sand River," is a portion of the great Keang in the earlier part of its course; and the largest amount of the precious metal is said to come from Ly-keang-foo, near that river, and Yoong-châng-foo, on the borders of Ava. In Yun-nân are also worked silver-mines; and indeed the great quantities of silver brought to Lintin for many years past, to be exchanged for opium and exported to India, have proved that there must be abundant sources in the empire. Ordinary copper, whence the base metal coin of the country is made, comes from Yun-nân and Kuei-chow. A good deal of this is called Tze-lae, or "natural," as being found in the beds of torrents. An abundance of malachite, or green copper ore, is obtained near the great lake in Hoo-kuâng, and is pulverized by the Chinese for green paint. The famous pe-tung, or white copper, which takes a polish not unlike silver, is said to come exclusively from Yun-nân. A considerable quantity of quicksilver is obtained in Kuei-chow; and there is a rich mine of zinc in Hoo-pě.

CHAPTER XXII.

AGRICULTURE AND STATISTICS.

Climate and meteorology - Typhoons - Discouragements to agricul ture - Objects of cultivation- Absence of pasture - Allotment of wastes Manures Irrigation - Rice - cultivation - Encouragements to population — Obstacles to emigration — Census → Positive checks Land-tax- Revenues partly in kind - Grain-junks Salttax-Taxes on transit-Expenditure - Deficiency of revenue — Existing abuses.

IN connexion with the subject of this chapter, it may be as well to make some general remarks on the climate and meteorology of such parts of the country as have come under the observation of Europeans. A distinguishing feature, the unusual excess in which heat and cold prevail in some parts of the empire at opposite seasons, as well as the low average of the thermometer round the year, in comparison with the latitude, has been already noticed and explained as resulting, according to the investigations of Humboldt, from the position of China on the eastern side of a great continent. Although Peking is nearly a degree to the south of Naples-the latitude of the former place being 39° 54', of the latter 40° 50'-the mean temperature of Peking is only 54° of Fahrenheit, while that of Naples is 63°. But as the thermometer at the Chinese capital sinks much lower during winter than at Naples, so in summer does it rise somewhat higher: the rivers are said to be frozen for three or four months together, from December to March; while during the

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last embassy, in September, 1816, we experienced a heat of between ninety and one hundred degrees in the shade. Now it is well known that Naples and other countries in the extreme south of Europe are strangers to such a degree of long-continued cold, and not often visited by such heats. Europe, observes Humboldt, may be considered altogether as the western part of a great continent, and therefore subject to all the influence which causes the western sides of continents to be warmer than the eastern; and at the same time more temperate, or less subject to excesses of both heat and cold, but principally the latter.

The neighbourhood of Canton, and of other cities on the coast, to the sea causes this tendency to be greatly modified; and indeed the climate of the larger portion of the empire seems to be, upon the whole, less subject to

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