Page:To the Court of the Emperor of China - vol I.djvu/40

Rh America, is not the only cause that operates in producing a particular temperature; and in spite of all that is said of the favourable alteration that has taken place in the last 60 years, I doubt whether that opinion, though pretty generally received, deserves entire confidence. Nothing is more subject to error than judgments formed concerning the state of the atmosphere, when they are only founded upon our sensations. (Fr. Ed.)

A kingdom tributary to China, and bordering upon it to the westward. The priests are there called Lamas, and there the Grand or Dalai-Lama has his residence. (Fr. Ed.)

Father Martin, in his geographical description of China, tom. 8, in folio, du Recueil des Voyages de Thevenot, page 141, speaks of the movement of the tide at Hong-tcheou-fou mentioned by M. Van Braam. He even pretends that in the month of October it is accompanied by very extraordinary circumstances.

The author's speaking of the made of trees on the 27th of November, is by no means surprizing, when it is considered that he was still in the province of Quang-tong, where the forest trees never lose their leaves, but only change them in the spring, the winter being there scarcely perceptible.

The fruit trees, on the contrary, shed their leaves in the months of September and October.

Is, properly speaking, a Vice-roy governing a province. This employ is the most elevated that can be held by a Mandarin of the first rank, who is not officially resident at Court. Only eight of the fifteen provinces of China are