DETAILS ftESPISCTiNL. COCHIN CHINA 
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ter docs not make itself felt except for some days bv a wind more 
or less coo!, and in general unwholesome. In the meridional part 
called Lower Cochin China, there arc six months of dryness, and 
six months of rains : these rains produce a great humidity in the 
atmosphere, which renders the province unhealthy, especially about 
the month of April, the time when the rains begin to fall : the 
evaporations which thon proceed from the ground arc an almost 
general cause of fevers and other diseases. In the northern pro¬ 
vinces the tinfe of the heavy rains is in September, October and 
November. They sometimes fall in such large quantity that they 
produce inundations which spread over the whole country; these 
generally occur during a period of five days in the months of October 
and November. These inundations last two or three days, and 
contribute much to fertilize the soil ; they also sometimes cause 
great disasters. In November 1844, an inundation desolated the 
whole of the province of Thua thien ; the rain was accompanied 
by such a violent wind that all the houses and nearly all the walls 
were overturned during or.e night ; five or six thousand persons - 
perishing. In the month of November last year, after a heavy in¬ 
undation, the earth of a field in the neighbourhood of the capital 
sunk in one night, and formed a lake of 12 feet in depth, 30 
feet broad and 120 feet in length. I was consulted as to the 
cause of this phenomenon, of which they had never had an ex¬ 
ample, and which even infused some fear into the soul of the 
monarch who governs the kingdom. Not to leave the ques¬ 
tion without answer, I said that we might suppose that the wa¬ 
ters, running from the heights of the mountains viith impetuosity 
and in great abundance, had excavated a large and deep tunnel, 
and that the earth of this field, softened by the rains and de¬ 
prived of support, had thus fallen in. This reason appears to me 
to be very plausible, but I leave the decision of this question to 
more scientific persons. 
in Lower Cochin. China there are not such abundant rains or 
similar inundations, but, on the other hand, the ground being al¬ 
most on a level with the sea, in the high tides, the water of the 
rivers overflows and covers the whole country. It is this which 
renders this part of the country the most fertile of all. They 
have only one crop of rice in the year, about the month of Fe- 
