34 TEMPEKATURE OF SHANG-HAI 



packing fish, which is sent twice a week in the 

 months of April and May to Peking. (Du Halde, 

 translation, vol. i. p. 74.) Again, that in the 

 month of Dec. 1841, snow lay on the ground 

 " knee deep " in the vicinity of Ning Po, N. lat. 

 29° 56'; and that the thermometer ranged so low 

 during the night as from ten to twelve degrees 

 below freezing point. Still this frost only continued 

 a few days. (Sir H. Pottinger's despatches, 24th 

 Jan. 1842.) 



It further appears that at Shanghai, N. lat. 31° 

 24', long. 121°32 / E., in the winter of 1845-6 

 the Woosung river was sufficiently frozen to afford 

 the English an opportunity of indulging in the 

 amusement of skating ; but I was informed by Capt. 

 Balfour that there was no foundation for the report 

 that they were enabled to walk from their factories 

 to their ships. Further, in the Rev. George 

 Smith's instructive work on China, the thermo- 

 meter is there shown to have ranged from 24° to 

 100° of Fahrenheit, and that the mean annual 

 temperature was so low as 61^ degrees. The 

 temperature of the different seasons extracted from 

 the same work, may be arranged as follows : — 



Spring, 57°; Summer, 79° 4' ; Autumn, 66° 4' ; Winter, 41° 3'. 

 The Mean of the two hottest months, July and August, 83° 5'. 

 Do. do. coldest months, Jan. and Feb. - 40° 6'. 

 Mean of year, 62°. 



I was also informed by Capt. Balfour, our late 

 consul at Shanghai, that snow will occasionally lie 



