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uilt and well-drained town, its unwholesomeness disappeared.The rainfall is greater than in Macau, owing to the attraction ofthe high peaks. During the rainy weather the walls of housesbecome damp, and if newly plastered, drip with moisture . . .The Chinese consider the provinces of Kwang Tung, KivangSi and Yunnan to be the most unhealthy of the eighteen[Provinces], and for this reason employ them as places ofbanishment for criminals from the north-eastern districts . . .The principal phenomena indicating their [typhoons'] approachare the direction of the wind . . . and the jailingbarometer . . . The rains fall heaviest toward the close of thegale, when the glass begins to rise. The barometer notunfrequently falls below 28 in. Capt Krusenstern in 1804records his surprise at seeing the mercury sink out of sight.The Chinese have erected temples in Hainan to the TyfoonMother, a goddess whom they supplicate for protection againstthese hurricanes. They say that a few days before a tyfoon comeson, a slight noise is heard at intervals, whirling round and thenstopping, sometimes impetuous and sometimes slow. This is ac tyfoon brewing.' Then fiery clouds collect in thick masses;the thunder sounds deep and heavy. Rainbows appear, nowforming an unbroken curve and again separating, and the endsof the bow dip into the sea. The sea sends back a bellowingsound, and boils with angry surges; the loose rocks dash againsteach other, and detached sea-weed covers the water; there is athick, murky atmosphere; the water-fowl fly about affrighted;the trees and leaves bend to the south - the tyfoon hascommenced. When to it is super added a violent rain and afrightful surf, the force of the tempest is let loose, and away flythe houses up to the hills, and the ships and boats are removed tothe dry land; horses and cattle are turned heels over head, treesare torn up by the roots, and the sea boils up twenty or thirtyfeet, inundating the fields and destroying vegetation. This iscalled tieh ku, or an iron whirlwind.In some years the typhoons gave respite but the rains came.The Rev John A, Turner, missionary, in Kwang Tung, orFive Years in South China (1894):49