wise subject to frequent heavy showers of rain; and, as is also the month of August, to storms of thunder and lightning. The winds blow almost unintermittingly from south-east or south. August. In this month the heat is generally as oppressive as in July, and often more so, although the thermometer usually stands lower. Towards the close of the month, the summer begins to break up, the wind occasionally veering from S.E. to N. and N.W. Typhoons seldom occur earlier than this month or later than the end of September. September.-In this month, the monsoon is entirely broken up, and northerly winds begin to blow, but with little alleviation of heat. This is the period most exposed to the description of hurricanes called Typhoons, the range of which extends southwards, over about one half of the Chinese sea, but not far northward. They are most severe in the gulf of Tonquin. October. Northerly winds prevail throughout the month of October, occasionally veering to N.E. or N.W.; but the temperature of the atmosphere is neither so cold nor dry as in the following months. Neither does the northerly wind blow so constantly, a few days of southerly wind frequently intervening. The winter usually sets in with three or four days of light drizzling rain. November. This month and the following are the most pleasant in the year,—at least to the feelings of persons from more northern climes. Though the thermometer is not often below 40°, and seldom so low as 30°, the cold of the Chinese winter is often very severe. Ice sometimes forms about one eighth of an inch thick; but this is usually in December or January. December. The months of December and January are remarkably free from rain; the average fall in each month being under one inch, and the average number of rainy days being only three and a half.. On the whole, the climate of Canton, but more especially of Macao, may be considered very superior to that of most other places situated between the tropics. SEELONGS OF THE MERGUI ARCHIPELAGO.-By Dr. Helfer. Jan. 19.-Spent the day amongst the Seelongs. At my first arrival, in the night, a general terror spread over the defenceless community they not knowing whether friend or foe was approaching. Suspecting an incursion of Malays from the south, the women and children had fled into the interior, and their best property, sea slugs and rice, had been buried in all hurry in the jungle. Finding that a white man was come amongst them, (it was on their parts for the first time,) their apprehension changed into joy, and the whole community came in the morning where I had landed to welcome me. There were about seventy men, women, and children, altogether. They had encamped on the sandy sea beach. Each family had erected a little raised shed covered with palm leaves, where all the members huddled together in the night. There they sat, a dirty, miserable looking congregation, the women occupied in making mats of a peculiar description, from sea weed, (which are sold in Mergui and Maulmain and much sought after,) the children screaming apparently out of fear at the strange apparition, dogs, cats, and cocks, all joining to make the full chorus. Every thing had the appearance of confusion and even the animals seemed to be aware that my arrival amongst them was an extraordinary event. Some of these sheds appeared like butcher's stalls, large pieces of turtle cut in pieces, and rendering the atmosphere pestilential, were every where drying in the sun, (it is their main food,) shellfish were seen to be extracted from the shells, and wild roots of a species of dioscorea, as well as the fœtid shoots of cycus circinalis were prepared for cooking. On the beach lay about 20 or 30 boats, well built and light, like nut shells swimming on the surface; the bottom, built of a solid trunk, the sides constructed of the slender trunks of palms, strongly united and caulked with palm hemp. These boats, not longer than 20 feet, are the true houses of the Seelong. To one of these he trusts his life and little property. In it he wanders during his life time from island to island,-a true Ichthiophay for whom the earth has no charm, and whom he neglects so much, that he does not even intrust to her care a single grain of rice. But even as fishermen, these people are to be considered yet in their infancy. They have even no nets; the trident is their only weapon with which they spear sharks and other fish as well as turtle. All the rest they want is done with the dah or with the hand; they know no other instrument. In their exterior they are well built, apparently healthy, darker than the Burmese; part of them approach the Malay type, part of them the Ethiopian, the curly hair of some of them especially speaks in favour of Negro origin. Might they have had formerly communication with the Andamanese so close by? I spent the whole day in conversation with them, through the medium of their head man who understood Burmese. Besides him and two others, the rest were unacquainted with it. Some spoke besides their own idiom, Siamese, some Malay. They behaved with remarkable civility and decorum: they related that their childeren are exposed to sickness and death from 3 to 6 years, who survives that period is considered safe. I think they die, to judge from the description in consequence of dysentery, not improbably caused by the indigestible nature of their food at that tender age. They know no medicine whatever, a strange exception,-uncultivated nations being generally in the possession of the greatest number of simples, besides the host of charms and other indifferent substances to which great virtues are attributed. To get physic, and charms from the Chinese, they sell their most valuable produce, pearls, amber, lignum, aloes, etc. The greatest present I could make them, besides some ardent spirits, was medicine. When they saw me drink coffee and heard that I drank the black substance every day, they concluded this to be the great medicine of the white man, and were not satisfied until I gave them a good portion of it. They are addicted to liquors in a frightful degree; intoxication is the greatest enjoyment they know. By all who have to do with them ENLARGED SERIES.-NO. 1.-VOL. FOR 1843. C (Chinese and Malays) they are provided with toddy in the first instance, and during the subsequent state of stupor, robbed of every valuable they possess. They gain, however, so easily what they want that they do not seem to mind much the loss when they come again to their senses. They are indolent; only young men work, that is collect what falls under their hand. Surrounded with valuable riches of nature, they remain miserably poor; the regeneration of this race will probably never be effected, but the Seelongs open a fine field to a truly philanthropic missionary; if they remain much longer in this state, their names will soon be erased from the list of nations. Their ideas of the Deity are very imperfect; they believe in superior agencies, without any distinct idea. The immortality of the soul, is an idea too high for their comprehension. When asked what they thought would become of them after death? they answered, they never thought about it, and added by way of excuse "we are a poor people who know nothing." They are full of supersition and fear. When a person dies the body is exposed in the jungles; the whole congregation leave instantly, and do not return till after years, when the bleached bones are collected and buried. I accompained a party of young men on a fishing excursion. They were very dexterous in managing the spear, which was attached to a bamboo 20 feet long. They caught in an hour 3 large turtles, 2 sharks, and some other fish. MEMOIR ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL. "Should the process of deposit not be arrested by dredging, or, averted by a tide-diverting wall, the spit of Devils Bank and Pluckington Shelf will rapidly unite, and on growing up towards low water level, a damming up of all that eastern branch of the Mersey ebb, and a forcing through of a swatchway (already begun at A near Garston,) must take place. The whole column of ebb water will then sweep the Cheshire shore, leaving the Pluckington to accumulate and spread across the Liverpool docks, in a ratio defying all sluicing, and leaving the necessity and desireableness of docks on the bolder and more sheltered shore opposite no longer a question." The above forms a portion of the observations made by Captain H. Mangles Denham, R.N., in his work on the navigation of the Mersey and Dee, and in which that talented Marine Surveyor has sought to draw the attention of the Trustees of the Liverpool Docks to that all important subject, the preservation of the vast interests committed to their care. Interests second only to those of the great Metropolis of this Empire! In Captain Denham's work a full account is given of the plan by which the gallant officer proposes to remedy the above great evil to which the port of Liverpool is subjected, but the purport of his views |