Whether this idea is correct or not remains to be proved and must be considered to be at least doubtful, since the cultivation of Rice Grounds of precisely the same description all round the City of Singhai in the Island of Chusan has been found not to affect in the slightest degree the extraordinary salubrity of that place and it is also well known that similar Rice lands exist in many parts of India without exerting very deleterious effect on the neighbourhood.
It is however desirable and necessary that the experiment should be made and you are accordingly authorized to take the requisite steps for levelling the whole of the artificial mounds and embankments so as to allow all the fresh water that either falls (during the Rains) in the vallies or comes into them from the surrounding Hills, free egress to the Sea.
678
His Excellency the Governor in Council cannot help thinking that there must be some miscalculation as to the conclusion that the greater part of both vallies is below the level of high water, since the personal observation of the oldest European residents in the Colony and the testimony of the Chinese inhabitants lead to a contrary opinion. It may however be as stated and it may even prove that the sea water at the extreme height of Spring tides will overflow some portion of the vallies, but as that cannot be the case even during Spring Tides for above an hour and a half out of each twenty-four hours