189 



which have occurred in China from the commencement of the T'ing to the end of the 

 Ming dynasty (620-1643), demonstrate the disastrous effects of this deforestation. These 

 droughts not infrequently lead to cannibalism, especially in the latter part of the period 

 named, when, it may be persumed, deforestation had reached its fullest development. 

 Perhaps famine has never attained such fearful proportions as recently, 1876 to 1880, in 

 the five great northern provinces of China, where, out of a population of one hundred 

 millions, in an area of something over three hundred thousand square miles, from ten 

 millions to thirteen millions of people — in some districts six-tenths, in others nine-tenths 

 of the population — perished of starvation. The details of these sufferings furnished V)y 

 the Committee of R(;lief, as stated in this paper, are harrowing in the extreme. Human 

 flesh was sold openly in the markets. From eating those who died of starvation, they 

 came to killing the living for food — according to the memorial of the Governor of Honan 

 to the throne ; not the poor alone but the wealthy suffered most horribly, and finally fell 

 upon, killed and devoured their own wives, children and parents. 



The Committee of Relief, composed of foreigners, long resident in China, attriVjuted 

 this calamity entirely to the extreme denudation of forests, and consequent desiccation of 

 the soil. This deforestation was remarked by the Jesuits a century and a half ago, 

 Shansi, formerly opulent and prosperous, the favourite abode of the princes of the Ming 

 dynasty, has, through four centuries of neglect, deforestation and famine lost its wealth, 

 fertility and prominence. This deforested region has for centuries been subject to the 

 scourage of drought and famine. 



The southern portion of the province of Chihli is an enormous plain, once celebrated 

 for its fertility, now a treeless, poverty-stricken waste. Some streams have disappeared 

 to develope in other directions, and the large lake of Pei-hu, noted in the Jesuit maps, 

 has disappeared. The ground becomes covered with a white saline exudation fatal to 

 fruitf ulness. Great sand-storms frequently arise from and sweep over its surface, filling 

 the air with sand, which penetrates as far south as Shanghai. For forty miles around 

 Tientsin the soil is desiccated to the depth of seven feet, and below there is nothing but 

 salt earth, abounding in nitrate of soda. 



It is a singular commentary on the inconsistency of the Chinese character, to say 

 that they have a superstitious veneration for trees, and yet, in many districts and pro- 

 vinces, they destroy their forests. There is scarcely a village in treeless iShansi without 

 its old sacred tree covered with inscriptions. Yet it seems from this paper of Dr. Bailey'.s, 

 that China is wealthy in coal fields, such as make the use of wood for fuel unnecessary. 

 Each of these devastated provinces will average more square miles than the state of Ohio. 



These tables before mentioned, record 627 droughts within a little more than one 

 thousand years, and in the years from 1328 to 1640, nineteen occasions are recorded 

 where the people in their dire distress resorted to cannibalism. Within one thousand 

 years four of these provinces have on an average been visited by tremendous rains and 

 floods every 21.7 years. 



The description of the floods of the Hoang Ho, " China's Sorrow " it is sometimes 

 called, reminds one forcibly of the floods of the Mississippi, to which it furnishes a par- 

 allel. The great plains of Chihli are also inundated by the rush of floods from the Petho 

 and Wei Rivers. In A.D. 792 this vast plain was covered with water to the depth of 

 twenty feet. Since the floods of 1871 and 1875, the soil appears to have lost its pro- 

 ductive force. The Fen River in Shansi has the same torrent-like propensities, which are 

 characteristic of all the streams in these vast and treeless regions. Many other instances 

 might be given. It is quite certain that these plains, which were once a hive of the 

 human race, are gradually losing a large portion of their population. 



The wanton destruction of their forests have not only produced extraordinary floods 

 and droughts destroying millions of people and an incalculable amount of property, 

 accumulated by the toil of persistent and plodding industry, but is slowly preparing a 

 desert out of a soil which was once famous for its fertility. It is a warning to the people 

 of this country. 



