Chap. XV. TEMPERATURE — RAINS. 



257 



August the thermometer has frequently marked 105° 

 Fahr. This is not very different from Foo-chow as 

 far as the summer-heat is concerned, but we find a 

 great difference in winter. In the end of October 

 the thermometer frequently sinks as low as the 

 freezing-point, and the cold destroys what remains 

 of the cotton-crop, and those half-tropical productions 

 which are cultivated in the fields. December, Janu- 

 ary, and February are not unlike the same months in 

 the south of England, the thermometer often falls as 

 low as 12° Fahr., and snow covers the surface of the 

 ground. 



With these facts before us, therefore, it will not be 

 very difficult to arrive at a correct estimate of the 

 temperature in the black-tea districts of Fokien. 

 Tsong-gan-hien is in latitude 27° 47' 38" north. 

 Situated as it is almost exactly between these two 

 places, but a little further to the westward, we shall 

 not be far from the truth if we suppose that the 

 variations of temperature are greater there than about 

 Foo-chow, but considerably less than about Shanghae. 

 I have no doubt that, taking the summer and winter 

 months as before, we should find that in June, July, 

 and August the thermometer at Woo-e-shan would 

 frequently rise as high as 100° Fahr., while in the 

 winter months of November, December, and January 

 it would sink to the freezing-point, or even to 28°. 



Bains. — In all observations connected with the 

 cultivation of tea, there is another matter of great 

 importance to be taken into consideration, and that is 

 the period of the summer rains. Every one at all 



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