“It is also said that the ferocious alligator, that formerly infested the rivers of South China, has retreated southward. “The flora of the country is also affected by the increasing coldness of the climate. The bamboo is not found in the forests of North China, where it grew naturally two thousand years ago, but is still grown in Pekin, with the aid of good shelter, as a sort of garden plant only.” A letter from Hong Kong, published in the London _Standard_, reports that on the 15th of January, 1893, the temperature of Hong Kong, a tropical seaport of China, was below freezing for three days, and was colder than ever before known. The rocks and also vegetation were covered with a coating of ice. The thermometer at times stood at 23° and 26° Fahrenheit. I have previously explained how the slow increasing coldness of the northern temperate zone is also being carried out in the southern hemisphere. The meteorological records for the lofty table lands of Ecuador, although very incomplete, furnish strong evidence to show that the mean temperature of that region is gradually lowering. Observations made by Boussingault at Quito in 1831, compared with those from 1878 to 1881, showed a decrease from 15.2° Centigrade to 13.27° Centigrade. Records made by Hall from 1825 to 1827 give averages of 16.1° Centigrade, 15.52° Centigrade, and 15.6° Centigrade. This decrease holds good for all points in the inter-Andean region where records have been kept. Yet we know that the falling temperature in the northern temperate latitudes is not brought about by a yearly increase of cold, because, when the arctic channels are somewhat obstructed with icebergs, the movement of arctic waters through them is lessened; and, therefore, during such times the Gulf Stream, meeting with less opposition from arctic currents while flowing northward, is able to move a larger volume of its waters into the arctic seas, thus warming their waters sufficiently in a few seasons to clear the obstructed channels, and also somewhat soften for several successive years the temperature of such lands as border on the seas of that region. And in this way we account for the mild seasons which at times follow those of lower temperature in high northern latitudes. But, when the detained icebergs are set adrift, and currented into the temperate North Atlantic, the heat consumed while melting such numerous bodies of ice is able to more than overcome the warmth gained during the temporary detention of ice in the northern seas. Thus, under such considerations, it appears that the conditions are favorable for the growth of glaciers in the high northern latitudes.