CLIMATE OF NORTHERN CHINA. ; 215 
Great Wall. The whole of Northern China is drained by 
the river Hoangho and its tributaries, and possesses very 
diversified features,—lofty mountains, warm, sunny slopes, 
elevated plains, and broad, rich valleys. At Shanghae, 
which is on the coast on the southeastern border of this 
district, spring opens early, and the rains are periodical or 
at the changes of the monsoons. These occur from the 
middle of March to the middle of April, and from the 
middle of September to the middle of October. Crops 
are planted there before the middle of March, so as to en- 
joy the benefit of the spring rains. Succeeding them, or 
from the end of April to the middle of September, the 
weather is generally dry, the sky clear, hot at noonday, 
often rising to 100° F. in the shade during the months of 
July and August, and pleasant at night. These peculiari- 
ties of climate would make it necessary to plant the cane 
before the spring rains, or before the middle of March, and 
to cut it before the middle of September in this its native 
climate. Evidence is thus afforded that the natural habits 
of the plant are adapted, during the early part of its 
growth, to just such climatic conditions as are usual during 
early spring in our own country—a period of low tempera- 
ture and frequent rains, succeeded rapidly by hot summer 
weather. 
The soil* of this portion of China is said to be chiefly 
clay on the uplands, of a yellowish-brown color, derived 
from clay-slate, largely commingled with loam from the 
underlying rocks. The valleys are often broad and very 
fertile. 
The correspondence of the climate of China, as well as 
of all Eastern Asia to that of the eastern coast of North 
America, is a noteworthy fact, which is due, in a great 
* Patent Office Rep., 1857, p. 169, ete. 
