a province of Asia, in China, and the chief in the whole empire; bounded on the east by the sea, on the north by the great wall, on the west by Chansi, and on the south by Chantong and Honan.

This province contains nine cities of the first class, which have several others under their jurisdiction; these are about 40 in number, less considerable indeed, but all surrounded with walls and ditches. Petcheli has few mountains. Its soil is sandy, and produces very little rice; but all other kinds of grain abound there, as well as the greater part of the fruit-trees we have in Europe. It pays an annual tribute to the emperor, which, according to Father Martini, consists of 601,153 bags of rice, wheat, and millet; 224 pounds of linseed; 45,135 of spun silk; 13,748 of cotton; 8,737,248 trusses of straw for the horses belonging to the court, and 180,870 measures of salt, each containing 124 pounds; which is proportionally much inferior to that paid by other provinces. The population of this province is estimated at 38,000,000.

It is remarked that the people of this province have not the same aptitude for acquiring the sciences as those who inhabit the southern provinces of the empire; but they are more robust and warlike; and better calculated to endure the hardships and fatigue of war. This is the case with the Chinese of all the other northern countries.

The face of the country here being flat and level, permits the use of a kind of carriage, the construction of which appears to be rather singular. Father Martini, one of the first missionaries in China, thus describes it: 'They use, in the province of Petcheli, a kind of chariot with one wheel, and constructed in such a manner, that there is room in the middle for only one person, who sits as if on horseback; the driver pushes behind, and, by means of wooden levers, makes the chariot advance with safety and expedition.' This has perhaps given rise to the report of chariots driven in that country by the wind, which the Chinese direct over land with sails, as they do ships at sea. A French missionary, who traversed this province in 1768, seems to have made use of the same kind of carriage. 'We quitted the canal (says he) to travel in carts, which is customary in this part of China; but it is disagreeable beyond description. The cart is amazingly clumsy, and has a great resemblance to the carriage of a gun: there is room in it for only one person, who is frequently obliged to sit cross-legged, as our taylors do in Europe; it jolts prodigiously; and, while the traveller is exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, such clouds of dust sometimes arise as almost suffocate him.'

The temperature of the air of this province does not seem to agree with its latitude. Although Petcheli extends no farther than to the 42nd degree of north latitude, yet all the rivers there are so much frozen during four months in the year, that horses and waggons with the heaviest loads may safely pass them. It deserves to be remarked, that the whole body of ice is formed in one day, and that several are necessary to thaw only the surface. What may appear no less extraordinary is, that during these severe frosts one does not feel that sharp and piercing cold which accompanies the production of ice in Europe. These phenomena cannot be accounted for, but by attributing them to the great quantity of nitre which is found dispersed throughout this province, and to the serenity of the sky, which, even during winter, is seldom obscured by a cloud. The physical explanation, which we have given of this singular temperature, is fully confirmed by experiments lately made by Father Amiot at Peking, which convinced him, that in this capital and neighbourhood, as far as seven or eight With regard to the water, the facility with which it freezes, the solidity of the ice and its duration, evidently announce the presence of nitre. A tub filled with water, placed near one of Reaumur's thermometers, had its surface immediately frozen, when the mercury stood only one degree above the freezing point; and when it stood three degrees below freezing, the water became a solid mass of ice, if the diameter of the vessel did not exceed a foot and a half, and the depth of the water four or five inches. This water, when the weather was fine, continued in the same state of congelation as long as the mercury in the thermometer did not rise higher than three degrees above 0; when the mercury rose higher, it then began to dissolve, but so slowly, that two or three days were scarcely sufficient to restore it to its former fluidity." Grolier goes on to relate other experiments of Father Amiot, which were made with a view to discover the cause of the water's freezing so in this temperate climate; and he then proceeds to tell us, that "if the waters of the province of Petcheli contain much nitre, it is no less certain, that the air which one breathes there is abundantly impregnated with it. The following are indubitable proofs of it: 1st, Notwithstanding unwholesome food, such as the flesh of the greater part of domestic animals that have died of old age or disease, which the people of this province greedily devour, notwithstanding filth and all the inconveniences resulting from low, damp, and confined lodgings, where all the individuals of the same family are, as it were, heaped one upon another, the plague never makes its appearance in Petcheli; and the people are seldom attacked by any of those epidemical distempers which are so common in Europe. 2dly, Provisions of every kind may be kept at Peking a long while, without being subject to corruption. Raisins are eaten there fresh even in May, apples and pears till midsummer; wild boars, stags, deer, roebucks, rabbits, hares, pheasants, ducks, geese, and all kinds of game, brought from Tartary to Peking after the commencement of winter; fish of every species, transported from the rivers of Leatong, will keep without the assistance of salt, in their state of congelation, for two or three months, although they are exposed every day in the markets, carried from the markets to private houses, and from private houses brought back to the markets until they are all sold, which does not happen before the end of March. It is certain that these facts announce an antiseptic quality in the air, which must undoubtedly proceed from the great quantity of nitre contained it.

3dly, The earth which forms the soil of Petcheli abounds no less with nitre; whole fields may be seen in the neighbourhood of Peking which are covered with it. Every morning at sunrise, the country in certain cantons appears white as if sprinkled by a gentle fall of snow. If a quantity of this substance be swept together, a great deal of kien, nitre, and salt, may be extracted from it. The Chinese pretend that this salt may be substituted for common salt; however this may be, it is certain, that in the extremity of the province towards Siuen-hoa-fou, poor people, and the greater part of the peasants, make use of no other. With regard to the kien procured from the earth, they use it for washing linen as we do soap. Although the land of Petcheli be replete with nitrous particles, it does not, however, form dry deserts; it is cultivated with care, and becomes fruitful by incessant labour. The earth is frozen in winter to the depth of two or three feet, and does not become soft before the end of March. This may explain why the frost kills plants in the neighbourhood of Pekin, which Linnæus raised in Sweden, although it is 25 degrees farther north than the capital of the Chinese empire. See CHINA, SUPPLEMENT.