Directory_and_Chronicle_1917 — Page 876

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SHANGHAI

on the soil for other purposes that a comparatively small area is under mulberry cultivation. The large supersession of rice cultivation in favour of dry crops, such as cotton and oil plauts, has certainly had an ameliorating effect on the climate in summer, and has much reduced the liability of European residents to malarious com- plaints, which now are, as a rule, of extremely mild types.

Although the growth of forest and fruit trees is heavily handicapped by the small depth at which permanent subsoil water is always to be found, Shanghai produces several varieties of fruits belonging to temperate regions. Mainly this is due to the long and late spring, which continues till well into June. Cherries of small size and poor flavour are common about the beginning of May, fair strawberries are now also to be had towards the latter half of the same month, and are succeeded by the eriobotrya, known locally as the bibo. As the summer proceeds plums, nectarines, - apricots, etc., of various varieties, enter the market, to be succeeded by fair peaches and grapes. None of these fruits, however, attain perfection, partly owing to the nature of the soil and the absence of proper sub-soil drainage, but chiefly to the want of skill and the absence of knowledge of the most elementary principles of fruit culture on the part of the native growers. Persimmons, apples, pears, walnuts, grapes, and other more northerly fruits are largely imported from the north, and more re- cently from Japan, or the west coast of America. Oranges of various descriptions and pumeloes come from the more southern coast ports, from Wênchow to Canton; while from the Philippines and Indo-China come the varied fruit products of the tropics.. Of trees, willows take the first place, but are followed by at least two species of elm, the salisburia (maiden hair tree), pines, yews, bamboos, oaks and chestnuts, etc. Flowering trees, such as the magnolia in three or more species, the melia, paulownia, wistaria and later gardenia and lagerstromia and many more lend variety in their various seasons to the landscape, while up to the latter end of June the ordinary cultivated flowers of Europe grow well and abundantly. In winter, too, orchids and the finer tropical plants grow well under glass, and both publicly and privately con- siderable attention is paid to horticulture, the public parks and gardens having within the last few years increased considerably in area, as well as in being attended to- regularly by trained botanical experts. The native flowers most in evidence are the chrysanthemum and peony, though roses are largely cultivated for their scent.

Owing to the thickness of the population the native mammalian fauna has been almost exterminated, being practically contined to a single species of small deer, the hydropotes inermis, the badger, and one or two of the stoat family. The avi-fauna is, however, extensive, pheasants and partridges being still fairly abundant in certain localities, while during the cold season snipe, duck, teal and other species of wild fowl are plentiful about the numerous marshes and river channels. The other birds are nearly identical with the palearctic fauna of Europe. Reptiles are little in evidence, the most noteworthy being a small species of alligator not exceeding six feet long. This animal is a resident of the lower Yangtsze, especially about Wuhu, but young individuals have been occasionally found in the marshes of the Hwangpu opposite Shanghai. No single work of commanding authority has yet been published on the Natural History of the Kiangnan Provinces, and the works of the principal explorers, the late Robert Swinhoe, F.L.S., and Père Heud, S.J., have to be searched for in the proceedings of various learned societies. A work specially interesting to sports- men, "With Gun and Boat in the Yangtze Valley," by Mr. H. T. Wade, published in 1895, gives much varied and useful information on the subject.

TOPOGRAPHY

That portion of the Hwangpu river opposite the original British Settlement, now known as the Central District, was formerly a canal, cut, according to tradition, by an officer bearing the name of Hwang, to open a communication with a lake opposite the town of T'sipao, some seven miles above the native city, but it now constitutes the principal drainage channel from the upper country. This was formerly accomplished by the ancient Woosung, now in its turn reduced to the dimensions of a creek, which, however, still forms the main water approach to Soochow, the capital of the lower province, and the seat of the Futai or Governor. The Hwangpu was at the time of the opening of the port some 2,000 feet across at low water opposite the Settlements, but is now much reduced owing to the arrestment of silt brought down from the upper reaches and to the embankment of both shores to form wharves. As this narrowing of the stream has been accompanied by an improved training of the banks the actual decrease in width of the navigable channel is of no great importance. A similar optimistic view cannot, however, be taken of the changes in the reaches of the river