Climate is difficult to convey by the metrical registers of the climate of every place. The range of the thermometer will not indicate the pressure of the Atmosphere, the barometer near the tropics is of little utility as an index, the hygrometer, imperfectly measures the quantity of rain which it sheds, the question of the soil, the extent and quality of the vegetation, the exposure to the sea, etc., influence what is comprised under the word Climate.
In some respects, the whole coast of China partakes of the climatic characteristics of the opposite coast of the American continent, particularly as regards the extremes of temperature and its depressing influence on bodily exertion.
For six months, from April to September, the heat varies from 80 to 90° F during the monthly mean. The diurnal Register in amplitude is great, but vocationally producing the other best months, the heat is also very great, the Thermometer having been known to stand at 80°F on Christmas day.
The Island being on the verge of the tropics is subject to almost the extremes of the torrid and temperate zones, even on the same day the range of mercury in the Thermometer is very great, and the vicissitudes are exceedingly trying to the European constitution.
But neither the range from heat to cold nor the quantity of moisture in the atmosphere can adequately convey the effects that the climate is capable of producing on the human frame.
During April and part of May, while the sun is approaching rapidly from the Equator, there is a languishing heat with a cloudless sky, but towards the end of May and throughout June, and also during part of July, the rain descends in torrents with a force and continuance that is varied.