i8z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



illation in 1882, according to the best accepted authorities, of 380,- 

 000,000, or a fraction less than 300 people to the square mile. This 

 average, large as it is, gives no adequate idea of the real density of 

 the population in the nine important provinces of China. In 1812 

 the Chinese census gave 850, 705, and 671 inhabitants to the square 

 mile in the three provinces of Kiangsu, Nganhwsu, and Chehkiang 

 respectively. These averages have since increased largely, but 

 there are no reliable data from which to give the present popula- 

 tion per square mile in these or other provinces. The struggle for 

 life under such conditions of overpopulation must necessarily be 

 severe beyond description. But when we add to this the fluctua- 

 tions of rainfall, involving frequently occurring periods of drought 

 and flood, and consequent famine and misery, we begin to per- 

 ceive the true causes of Chinese emigration. 



The famine of 1878, growing out of the drought of the four 

 preceding years, it is estimated, swept from nine and one half to 

 thirteen millions of inhabitants out of existence. " At all epochs," 

 says the Abbe" Hue, " and in the most flourishing and best-gov- 

 erned countries, there always have been, and there always will be, 

 poor ; but unquestionably there can be found in no other country 

 such a depth of disastrous poverty as in the Chinese Empire. Not 

 a year passes in which a terrific number of persons do not per- 

 ish of famine in some part of China, and the number of those 

 who live merely from day to day is incalculable. Let a drought, 

 an inundation, or any accident whatever occur to injure the har- 

 vest in a single province, and two thirds of the population are im- 

 mediately reduced to a state of starvation. You see them form- 

 ing themselves into numerous bands perfect armies of beggars 

 and proceeding together, men, women, and children, to seek in the 

 towns and villages for some little nourishment wherewith to sus- 

 tain for a brief interval their miserable existence. Many fall 

 down by the wayside and die before they can reach the place 

 where they had hoped to find help. You see their bodies lying in 

 the fields and at the road-side, and you pass without taking much 

 notice of them, so familiar is the horrid spectacle." 



" Calamities of this kind occur every year in some place or oth- 

 er ; and those who have made any savings are able to get through 

 the crisis and wait for better days ; but others, who are always 

 in much greater numbers, have no choice but to expatriate them- 

 selves or die of famine." 



In 1855 Sir John Bowring, the " British Resident at Canton," in 

 reply to inquiries from the Registrar-General in London, gave 

 some interesting facts concerning the Chinese, which were subse- 

 quently published by the Statistical Society. Speaking of the 

 emigration from China, he said : 



" The constant flow of emigration from China, contrasted with 



