onsoon may be said to assimilate with the
trade-winds of the opposite hemisphere; but this "strong wind" blows
with even more violence, and has a circular motion. Ships have had their
masts bodily twisted out of them, and many, more unfortunate, have been
ingulfed in the maelstrom created by its fury. From its veering so
suddenly to every point of the compass, the usual precautions against
ordinary gales afford but little protection. A heavy, boding swell
precedes, to give notice of the dreaded Ty-foong. The aquatic birds,
with natural instinct, take wing and fly before its approach; whilst on
shore the air is filled with insects in constant motion. So indicative,
indeed, is this flight of insects, that the Chinese call them Ty-foong
Bugs.

The inhabitants predicate the recursion of these storms by numerous
other signs, and are prompt to take every precaution to avoid their
effects. At Macao, upon this occasion, the proprietors of the "Tanka"
and "pull away" boats drew them on shore, some distance from the
landing, and close to the houses. In these, the boat folk, men, women,
and children, stowed themselves away, prepared to weather the Ty-foong.
The walls of the dwellings on the Praya forming a good lee, they lashed
their boats as well as they were able, and secured the bamboo coverings.
Not a boatman could be prevailed upon to launch his craft for love or
money. Some of them, indeed, from the habit of their profession, would
say, "Suppose have give ten, twelve dollar, so;" but if you appeared for
an instant to incline to their extortionate demand, they would at once
change their tune, and shaking both head and tail,--please to remember
that Chinese boatmen _have_ tails to their heads,--cry out, with
deprecatory gestures, "Ei-yah! how can make walkee? my tinkee can
catchee too muchee Ti-fung!" and then slide back beneath their bamboo
shelter, with a decisive "No can!"

The season when Ty-foongs generally prevail in these latitudes,--and
it is only within a few degrees upon these coasts that they rage,--is
between July and October, inclusive of those months. They form a
serious impediment to the navigation of the China Sea, almost amounting
to its obstruction at this period; for the inducement must be great to
encounter such a risk. H. B. M. ship Hastings experienced a severe one
late in October, and the new American clipper ship "Witchcraft," came
into Victoria harbor on the third of December, 1851, having encountered