Morning journal and courier., 1890-10-14
The Floods i'm China. rr-,,,, .,,. r,g,s-,.., .rg,,,.rsr

The country being now an open sea, with trees to mark the line of roads and canals, and the villages standing out of the water like islands, with the higher of the grave-mounds showing their heads above water, those who could muster boats or canoes had a fine time in sailing over the road over which only three days be- fore carriages were driving. Curious sights presented themselves The animal creation, surprised by the inundafion,
 were nonplussed like the mammoths in Si-
 beria. Nearly every tree formed the re-
 fuge of 6 snake, and the opponents of
 s'Tree and Serpent worship might have
 derived from the spectacle some light on
 the mythical origin of that cult The
 graves were literally covered inches deep,
 some with beetles, some with mole-crick-
 cts (carpentersl, and many other kinds,
 while the water in places was alive with
 the creatures swimming for their lives.
 What became of the small mammalia We
 have not heard, but probably the villagers
 on their mounds could tell a tale of the
 unwelcome invasion of thelr asylums.
 Of the causes of the flood it is perhaps
 premature to speak The rivers to the
 west undoubtedly oyerhowed, and the
 Hun-ho is said to have effected 8 junction
 with the Pei-ho at Yang-tsun instead of at
 Hsi-ku, its normal confluence. This
 would perhaps account for the congestion of the river below Yang-tsun. But the controlling influence which the grand ca- nal has obviously exercised over the situa- ton points strongly to the overflow of the Yellow river as the main cause of our present inundation. Should that be the case it would be futile to make any at A.. | canal, and all that can be practically aimed at is to facilitate the drainage of the plain towards the sea.
 What all this means to the poor people | it is superfuous to dwell upon Their | distress is beyond expression, only | equalled by their marvellous patience in bearing it Most of the houses of the | poor in this province being built of mere | mud, no resistance could be offered to the | water, and when the food passed over a village it melted away like lump of su- | gar in a cup of coffee. The first reports of loss of life appear to have been exag- gerated. though no doubt good many | found watery graves. So sudden was the | rise in the river above Tentsin that some | boats which were anchored with short ca bles were lifted up before the crews took \ the alarm and could pay out chain, and were swamped at their moorings, the crews being drowned. The complete de- struction of season's crops is alone a ca- lamity of the first importance, and the ex- posture and discomfort of old and young is painful to contemplate. Of the area of the devastation no exact estimate can be
 formed, but probably three thousand ! square miles, which is only one-tenth of
 the area drained by the Pei-ho system, is not an excessive figure. The entire oblit-
 eration of the roads has so isolated the
 towns and villages that of their condition nothing at all is known. We can only | speak of the sufferers on She immediate | outskirts of Tientsin, who, like the ami
 | mal tribes. are seeking the dry place.
 | whereon to spread their mats. The city wall has besn portioned out among tn ] refugees from the different sections, anI , | the roads and streets are beginning to b thronged Nothing is more remarkabl than the exemplary quietness with whicl these poor people meet their woes. In } British settlement, with its wide, dry, ana | not too busy streets, offers what migh r have been thought an irresistible tempta , | ton to the drowned-out mulfitudes, bu , no thought of invading it seems as yet tC have entered their minds. Nodoubt wher | the authorities have had time to collec
 themselves, some general scheme of relic. . will be set on foot, and it is certain thai private beneyolence will not be backward
 in mitigating, to some slight extent, tn, misery around Relief works of useful character would undoubtedly have beer found had the flood been somewhat les, l | exacting, but as all work of that naturs requires some dry ground, of which ther, is not a rood in the whole distressed area the very material is denied to the hands o , the laborers.