Page:The Chinese Repository - Volume 01.djvu/170

 of the world of a truly interesting description will be overlooked. And for the accomplishment of this object, an extensive correspondence will be maintained. But it is to the that our attention will, in an especial manner, be directed—and most of all, the  and its dependant provinces; our object being to supply as much local information as can be compressed within reasonable limits; and, in this way, to supply a desideratum in the present state of Religious Statistics in Eastern India. That the work will be conducted on the most Catholic principles will best appear from the fact, that the list of contributors includes Ministers and Laymen of all denominations.'

Applications for the work to be made to St. Andrew,s Library, Calcutta.

JOURNAL OF OCCURRENCES.


 * —or as Horsburgh spells it, tyfoong:—better tyfung, for the etymology is, we believe, Chinese; and not, as a late writer would have it—Greek. However, a Chinese Tyfoong, is almost as frightful, and certainly much more destructive than the fabled giant Typhon.

The tempest to which we allude, occurred on the 3d inst. The preceding evening gave indications of its approach; the wind was from the northward; the thermometer stood at 92, and the barometer began to fall from about 29.60 or 70. However, the night of the 2nd passed away without much wind. At day light, on the 3d, the breeze was fresher; the barometer kept falling till it descended, by some instruments, to 28.10; and by others to 27.90;—the lowest that we ever remember to have seen or heard of it in China.

In 1809, when the was lost, with all her officers, passengers and crew, the barometer fell to only 28.30. The gale on this occasion, at this and other places more inland, was far more severe than that of August 1831; it hung unusually long to the northward, and at Macao did great mischief to the shipping and native craft, in the inner harbour. Within the narrow limits of that place, it is said, as many as a hundred dead bodies have been washed on shore. Many European ships near the mouth of Canton river, were either partially or totally dismasted; and one Dutch vessel sunk entirely, almost within sight of Lintin and Macao. The Spartan, which was herself driven out to sea, was the happy instrument of saving about forty of the crew.

This Tyfung, from north to south, appears to have extended fully two hundred miles, and has destroyed not only shipping and boats; but has also greatly injured native temples, dwelling houses, cottages, and mat sheds by the river side. The foliage of the trees, and leaves of plants, and the very grass on the ground,—all sorts of vegetation, near the sea, has been blighted or burnt up. Above Canton, at Shanshwuy district, a party of men on their way to Governor Le, to assist against the rebel mountaineers, were overtaken by the tempest, and upwards of thirty of them drowned. Great numbers of the abodes of public women, on the banks of the river at Canton, were