Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/57

west, as higher levels are approached, the precipitation becomes larger.

An important feature of Chinese meteorology is the "typhoon," or revolving storm. This term has been generally regarded as a corruption of the Chinese word ta-fong, or great wind, but the best sinologues derive it from the Formosan local term for a cyclone, namely, tai-fong. This destructive storm sweeps up the coast at intervals between the months of July and October, being most liable to occur about the autumnal equinox in September. It has its birthplace generally in the neighbourhood of Hainan Island or the Philippines, whence it advances northward, revolving on its own axis as it travels. Its track is narrow; the general direction of motion is from south to north in a more or less devious course; its approach is signalled by a rapidly falling barometer and by light airs, which, though blowing from the north, stifle rather than refresh; it is accompanied by deluges of rain; at the centre there is an area of calm, and the identity of the phenomenon is established by the fact that in passing any place the final and initial directions of the wind are found to be exactly opposite. Happily these tremendous gales usually expend their force at sea, where the laws of their behaviour are now so well understood that careful navigators usually elude them altogether or manœuvre so as not to encounter their least force. On the rare occasions of their inland travel the destruction wrought