HURRICANE ON THE CH"INA SEAS. 105 



lipoii the shore by the swelling surges of the sea, 

 which in some places rolled for three or four miles 

 upon the land. This tempest lasted for three 

 hours." 



The China seas are the most frequently visited 

 by severe tempests, or typhoons ; yet of all vessels, 

 the Chinese junks, as they are called, seem to be 

 least adapted by their build for encountering such 

 storms. 



A terrible hurricane burst upon the China seas 

 in the month of January 1837, as we learn from 

 the " United Service Journal " of that year. An 

 English vessel was exposed to it. The sea, rising in 

 mountains around and over the ship's sides, hurled 

 her rapidly on her passage homeward, when sud- 

 denly a wreck was discovered to the westward. 

 The order to shorten sail was given, and promptly 

 obeyed; and when they neared the wreck they found 

 her to be a Chinese junk without mast or rudder 

 a helpless log on the breast of that boiling sea. 



There were many Chinamen on deck vehemently 

 imploring assistance. . The exhibition of their joy 

 on beholding the approach of the stranger was of 

 the wildest and most extravagant nature j but it 

 was doomed to be suddenly turned to despair, as the 

 violence of the storm drove the ship past the wreck. 

 It became necessary to put her on the other tack, a 

 manoeuvre which the poor creatures construed into 

 abandonment, and the air rang with the most 

 agonizing shrieks of misery. But hope was again 



