26 TEMPERATURE OF CANTON. 



It is not exaggeration to say that every year the 

 rice fields in the neighbourhood are frozen for a 

 few days, and that ice the thickness of a crown 

 piece is occasionally seen carried through the streets 

 for sale. From the middle of December to the 

 end of March, Europeans are clad in their winter 

 garments, and their houses are furnished with 

 carpets, curtains, and fires. Nor is the thermo- 

 meter a correct index of the intensity of the cold 

 as regarding our sensations, owing to the force and 

 dryness of the wind. 



Should this degree of cold appear extraordinary 

 in a country bordering on the tropics, it must be 

 remembered that the northern winds, which prevail 

 during five or six months of the year, come sweep- 

 ing over the frozen arid steppes of Mongolia, and 

 extend their influence throughout the China Sea 

 to within five degrees of the equator. The inter- 

 mediate provinces of the empire, being in many 

 parts mountainous, with ranges running parallel 

 with the monsoons, besides being greatly inter- 

 sected by extensive rivers and lakes, some of which 

 are occasionally frozen in the winter, must neces- 

 sarily tend to keep up and support the cold now 

 generated in more northern regions. Thus we 

 find that the mountains which separate the two 

 provinces of Quong-tong and Kiang-sy, though 

 situated only three degrees from the tropics, and 

 of moderate altitude, are occasionally covered with 

 snow in the winter season. Indeed, on some oc- 



