194 On Showers of Sand in China, [No. 2. 



in a meteorological and in a geological point of view, these showers 

 possess no small interest ; but if my conjectures respecting the part 

 which they play in the economy of nature be well founded, they are 

 of higher interest to the agriculturists of this most densely populated 

 region. I would premise the suggestion with the remark that the 

 Chinese, who from remote antiquity have been close observers of every- 

 thing pertaining to agriculture, all agree in asserting that a shower of 

 dust indicates a particularly fruitful season. They, it is true, never 

 refer to the dust as the cause of good harvests, but such invariably 

 followi its fall. The humus of this great alluvial tract is extremely 

 compact, and to some extent is probably segregated and loosened by 

 the sand of Gobi being scattered over its fields. Those two great 

 rivers, with several smaller ones which drain the Plain, are ever bearing 

 to the sea the lighter portions of the soil, and so tinging it as by its 

 hue to give name to that part which laves these shores. These remark- 

 able showers then are replenishing and diluting the soil which rains 

 and rivers are ever impoverishing. It is not supposed that all the de- 

 tritus which is conveyed to the sea is the sand which by these remark- 

 able showers is brought from the sterile wastes of the North, but 

 there can be no doubt that much of the matter of the Yellow Sea is 

 from that source, and also that the sand acts favorably on the soil. 



The extraordinary rains of the previous year, the injury to the crops 

 and soil, and consequent famine, lead us to hope that the anticipations 

 of the husbandmen may not be disappointed, whether the theory here 

 propounded be correct or erroneous. 



Ningpo, April 26th, 1850. 



Note. — It has been ascertained by Ehrenberg that the dust or yellow sand which 

 falls like rain on the Atlantic near the Cape de Verde Isles, and is sometimes 

 transported to Italy, and even the middle of Europe, consists of a multitude of 

 silicious-shelled microscopic animals. " Perhaps," says Humboldt, " many of 

 them float for years in the upper strata of the atmosphere, until they are brought 

 down by vertical currents, or in accompaniment with the superior current of the 

 trade-winds, still susceptible of revivification, and multiplying their species by 

 spontaneous division, in conformity with the particular laws of their organization." 

 Further research may show too that the sand in the Chinese Plain contains ani- 

 malculse. — Ed. Ch. Rep. 



