AS WE learn from a recent number of the _Journal des Missions Evangeliques_, a new work appeared in China toward the end of 1849, under the title _Of the Geography and History of Foreign Nations_, by SEU-KE-JU, the viceroy of the important province of Foh-kien. It is in ten volumes, though the whole of them do not contain more matter than one of our common school text books, and is accompanied by a map of the world and several other maps. It has a preface by the Governor-General of the province, in which he declares that it is better than all previous geographical works in China, and recommends it to his countrymen as perfectly worthy of confidence. The two first volumes are occupied by a general introduction, in which Seu-ke-ju speaks of the sources from which he has derived information, and of the many difficulties he has had to contend with; he explains the use of maps, gives the simplest ideas concerning the spherical form of the earth, and expatiates on the difference of climates. Nothing can give a better idea of the profound ignorance of the Chinese upon these subjects, and nothing prove more decisively that they never can have possessed great mathematicians and astronomers than such passages as the following: "Formerly we were aware of the existence of an icy sea at the north only, but had never heard that there was another at the south. And when men from the west showed us maps on which such a sea was put down, we thought they had made a mistake from ignorance of the Chinese language, and had transferred to the south what ought to be in the north. But when we inquired about this subject of an American named Abeel (a missionary at Amoy), he said that the fact was certain, and now it indeed appears to us undeniable. The provinces of Kwang-tong and Foh-kien are mostly situated under the Kwang-tau (tropic) of the north, and when we compare them with the northern provinces in respect of heat, the temperature is found to be very different. At the time when we did not know that the sun passed over the middle of the globe, this fact caused us to believe that the farther one went to the south, the greater was the heat, and that at the south pole the stones ran in a melted state like a stream of gold. But this is not so; persons who go from Kwang-tong or Foh-kien, will find at the distance of five or six thousand _li_ the island of Borneo, which lies exactly under the Shih-tau (equator), and where the winter is like our summer. Going thence to the south-west the voyager reaches the south of Africa, where hail and snow are known; still farther on is Patagonia or the southern point of South America, near to the Hih-tau (polar circle) of the south, where ice is continual. Thus these warm and cold regions are successive, and therefore the region of the south pole is spoken of as a sea of ice. And why should the Chinese doubt this, because their ships have never gone so far and the province