at the same place, and inundated large districts and drowned over a million people. The Hoang-ho, in its course of about 2,600 miles, drains nearly threequarters of a million square miles. It is called the " Yellow" River, from the yellow sediment which it carries down from the loess, or "yellow earth" region of Northern China.

1

The Si-kiang, 900 miles long, waters the provinces south of the Nan-ling Mountains. Its estuary-the Canton River-is one of the most important commercial waterways in China.

The Pei-ho is formed by the confluence of several rivers at Tientsin-the port of Peking-and flows into the Gulf of Pe-chi-li,

Of the minor rivers that water the districts between the basins of these four great rivers, the most important is the Min, which rises in the Bohea Mountains and drains the maritime province of Fo-kien. 3 The upper courses of the Songkat or Red River, the Mekong,5 and the Salwin are within the Province of Yunnan; their middle and lower courses belong to Further India. The Song-ka is a navigable stream, and is likely to become of considerable commercial importance, now that the French have firmly established themselves in Tongking. LAKES: Three large lakes, named Po-yang, Tong-ting, and Tai-hu, adjoin the course of the Yang tse-kiang.

CLIMATE: The climate of China is generally temperate, but it is one of great extremes at opposite seasons. The summers are very hot and the winters excessively cold. This is the case all over Central and Eastern Asia.

PRODUCTIONS: Of natural productions, the tea-plant is the most remarkable It is a shrub of moderate size, which grows abundantly in the south-eastern provinces of the country-Kwang-tung, Fo-kien, and Che-kiangwhere it is cultivated with great diligence. The leaves are gathered at particular seasons and, according to the period at which they are picked and the process of drying which they afterwards undergo, they form either the black or the green tea of commerce.

China abounds in useful and valuable plant-products. The orange, mulberry, sugar-cane, and cotton plants are native to its soil, and flourish throughout its middle and most favoured belt of country.

The Loess or yellow-earth region of Northern China is the most fertile in the world. An are of a quarter of a million square miles is covered by this productive and easily tilled yellow earth, and the deposits in some places are 2,000 feet thick. Splendid crops of grain and cotton are grown on the "loess" lands without manure and with but little labour. From this yellow-earth region are named not only the river which drains it-the Hoang-ho or Yellow River-and the sea which this river formerly entered-the Hoang hi or Yellow Sea,--but the Emperor himself is styled Hoang-ti or the Yellow Lord, while yellow is the Imperial colour of China. The rivers which flow through the loess region carve out gorges with straight wall-like cliffs, in th caves of which millions of people live.

The mineral produce is also of high value. Good coal abounds, and the mountain provinces of the south-west yield gold and silver, and ores of iron, copper, lead, tin, and mercury are extensively distributed throughout the country. There are also some valuable salt-wells in the district cf the Min River, in Western China, from which large quantities of salt are manufactured.

1. The Si-kiang is frequently misnamed the Chuking. The latter term is really the name of one of its delta branches (that on which the town of Canton stands, which forms the common estuary of the Si-kiang and the Pe-king, and is more fre quently cailed the Canton River.

Pei-ho, te, Wh te River; from Chinese per, white, and ho, river. The Taku Forts, at the mouth

of this river, were taken by the allied British and French forces in 1860.

3. There is another river of the same name-the Min River-in Western China; it is a tributary of the Yang Ise kling.

4. Songka; Chinese, Hong kiang.
5. Mekong, Chinese, Kien-Ing.

There are large coalfields in all the provinces of China Proper, yet the annual output is under three million tons. The coalfields of the United Kingdom are much less extensive than those of China, but the annual production is over 236 million tons.

INHABITANTS: China is said to contain upwards of 380 millions of inhabitants, or one-fourth of the entire human race. It is by no means certain that this is the case, but the amountvast as it is-implies a much less ratio of population to the square mile than in England.1

China abounds in large cities, and the banks of its rivers and canals literally swarm with human life. Great numbers of the Chinese emigrate annually, and they are settled numerously in every part of the East Indian Archipelago, as well as in India, Australasia, and California.

Education of a kind is general, and there is a literary class who devote their lives to the study of literature. All government appointments were, till recently, given to the successful candidates in repeated competitive examina tions. In 1887, mathematics were first introduced as a subject of examination and, in 1905, an imperial decree ordained that students of modern schools should be eligible for civil and military appointments. There are now universities at Peking and Tientsin, 15 provincial colleges, and numerous technical and other schools all over the country. There is no national or State religion, although Confucianism, which is mainly professed by the higher and learned classes, is sometimes regarded as such. The lower classes are mostly Buddhists, while vast numbers are attached to the degrading superstitions of Taoism, but large numbers of the people in Middle and Southern China profess and practise the three religions. There are probably about 30 million Mohammedans, 1 million Roman Catholics, and about 50,000 native Protestants. Most of the aboriginal hill tribes are Heathens,

INDUSTRIES: The industries of China embrace agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. The mass of the population derive their subsistence from the soil, which is tilled with extreme care, and the pursuit of agriculture is held in the highest esteem. Rice is the chief article of food, and tea is the universal beverage. Of manufactures, silk and cotton are the most important. The silkworm is a native of China, and is reared in vast numbers throughout the middle and southern provinces. The Chinese cotton mills had 620,000 spindles in operation in 1905.

The manufacture of earthenware is also of national importance, and the term by which the finer description of pottery is commonly known in our own country indicates the fact of its original derivation from China. A great number of earths and other mineral substances are employed in this manufacture, and a place called Kin-te-ching (in the inland province of Kiang-si, south of the River Yang-tse) is its central seat. The White Wax industry and the manufacture of sait are among the most important of the indigenous industries in Western China. The carving of ivory, the making of tea-caddies, trays, and other lacquered ware, various works in metal, and, more than all, the art of printing from raised blocks, indicate the skill and ingenuity of the Chinese artisans.

1. Taking the Chinese official estimates of the are and population as correct, the average density of population is 234 per square mile. In England the average is over 500, which is only ex-coded by the province of Shan-tung in the north-e ist In the transmural province of Shing-king, in the

extreme north-east, the average is only to persons per square mile, and in Yuman, in the west, only 100; but in the two provinces of the lower Yang tse-kiang (Ngan-hwei and Kiang-si the average is 428 and 340 respectively.

Internal communication: There are 20,000 Imperial roads, but most of the internal trade is carried on by means of the magnificent rivers, which are connected together by a tetwork of canals. Of the latter, the most important was the famous Grand Canal, which extends for seven hundred miles through the great plain, and formed the main highway for the conveyance of rice and other articles to the capital. in the courses of the Hoang-ho have destroyed portions of the canal, and rendered But the changes it necessary, pending the construction of railways, to adopt a seaward route for the commercial intercourse between Peking and the provinces to the southward.

The greater part of China forms a fertile and populous plain, and is especially well adapted for the development of railways, of which there were about 4,000 miles 1906, inclusive of the 1,650 miles belonging to the Manchurian Extension of the Siberian open in Railway, which runs from the Siberian Frontier to Harbin, whence the main line goes to Port Arthur and a branch to Vladivostok. The other principal railways in operation are from Peking to Niuchwang, with an extension to the Port Arthur Railway-Peking to Hankau, on the Yang-tse-Kiang, whence it is being extended to Canton; Shanghai to Nan-king; and Tsintau, the chief town of German Kiauchau, to Tsinan. Numerous other railways are in course of construction, mostly under concessions granted to foreigners. The Chinese telegraph lines have been extended across the frontier, and connected with the Russian lines on the north, and with the British and French lines on the south, while Peking is in telegraphic communication with nearly all the larger towns of the empire. About 14,000 miles are in operation.

COMMERCE: The foreign trade of China, which is chiefly carried on with the United Kingdom, Hong-Kong, and other British Colonies, amounts to 871⁄2 millions sterling a year. Imports 514, exports 36 millions.

Of the total trade, over 10 millions is with the United Kingdom, and 32 millions with Hong-Kong. This large trade with Hong-Kong consists of imports and exports consigned to and from China by the United Kingdom, the British Colonies, Germany, France, the United States, and other

countries.

The characteristic and best known product of China is tea, which is exported in large quantities to the different countries of Europe and the United States by sea, and by the overland route to Northern and Central Asia. Tea is not less a necessary of life to the Mongol shepherd and the half-savage Kirghiz than to the civilised native of European lands. The value of the tea exports to the United Kingdom has declined, owing to the rapid development of the tea industry in India and Ceylon, from over 234 millions in 1890 to £800,000 in 1904.

Besides tea, the Chinese export Raw Silk and silk goods, skins and furs, bean cake and beans. Raw Cotton and cotton goods, sugar, straw-braid, paper, porcelain, lacquered wares, ivory, and various ornamental articles. They import the cotton and woollen goods of England, and the opium of British India, metals and coal, together with a great variety of articles from the islands of the East Indian Archipelago-as pepper, betel nut, sandalwood, ebony, ivory, and mother of pearl, with edible birds' nests, and trepang (or sea-slug), the two latter being highly valued as luxuries. The bulk of the direct British exports to China is made up of cotton goods.

"China has, besides, an extensive coasting trade, largely carried on by British and other foreign as well as Chinese vessels-both junks and foreignbuilt vessels. A considerable fleet of steamers belonging to a Chinese Company is engaged in this, and occasionally participates in the foreign trade."

1. A peculiar and important item in the Chinese | 3 million lbs is sent to the var ons Chinese export trade is "joss-stick powder," of which over centres abroad for use in religious ceremonies,

The Imperial Maritime Customs of China, usually called the Foreign Customs, is controlled by an English Inspector General, and most of its chief officials are also British. Th's service collects the customs' dues and duties on all goods imported or exported in any vessel other than a Chinese junk, from or into any Treaty port. They have also charge of all lighthouses and lightships harbours, buoys, beacons, &c., and have their own fleet of cruisers, officered by foreigners."

The foreign commerce of China' is carried on through over 40 "Treaty Ports," of which the following are the more important :in South Manchuria, Niuchwang, Mukden, and Antung; in North China, Tientsin, Chinwangtao, and Chifu; on the Yang-tse-Kiang, Shanghai, Wusung, Chinkiang, Wuhu, Suchau, Nanking, Kiukiang, Hankau, Yuchau, Shatze, Ichang, and Chungking (at the head of navigation); on the South Coast, Nangchau, Ningpo, Wenchau, Fuchau, Amoy, Swatau, Canton, Kiungchau, and Pakhoi; in the Interior, Mengtze and Sumao in Yunnan, Wuchau in Kwansi, and Wanhsien in Suchwan.

GOVERNMENT: The government of China is an absolute despotism, based throughout upon the assumption of parental authority. The Emperor is the recognised vicegerent of Heaver, and father of all his subjects; and the same notion of parental authority is carefully preserved through all the gradations of society. The mandarins (as the various civil and military authori ties of China are styled by Europeans) constitute nine different orders of rank, each in regular subordination to that immediately above it.

The public Revenue is not known, but is supposed to amount to about £15,000,000, one-third of which is derived from the foreign customs, and the rest chiefly from duties and taxes on land, salt, opium, and rice. The Expenditure is mainly for the army, which is estimated to cost about 15 millions sterling a year. The total external Debt is about 127 millions.

Since the anti-foreign outbreak of the "Boxers" in 1899, which culminated in the siege of the Foreign Legations in Peking, and their eventual relief by an allied force in 1950, the military forces of China have been re-organised on European lines, and the troops are being drilled by European and Japanese officers. The army now consists of three chief divisions, numbering about 112,500 men, and is expected in a few years to be over a million strong. The Navy was almost completely destroyed in the late war with Japan, and row consists of four cruisers and a few smaller vessels. A new naval programme is in contemplation.

DIVISIONS: China Proper is divided into 18 Provinces, hence its native name-Shi-pa-shêng, “the eighteen Provinces."

Net included in the above list are the three Transmural Provinces of Manchuria, incorporated with China after the conquest of the country by the Manchu Tartirs in 1644; the north-western province of Sin-kiang, and the Insular Province of Hainan (capital Kien-chow).

TOWNS: The cities of China are generally of large size-many of them have each several hundred thousand inhabitants The capital of the Empire, Peking, contains at least a million of inhabitants, and Canton is much more populous. Among the more important cities, besides Peking and Canton, are Shanghai, Nanking, and Hankau-all three situated within the valley of the Yang-tse-Hangchau, Ningpo, Fuchau, and Amoy, on the coast to the south of the River Yang-tse.

PEKING (1,000), or the "Court of the North," the capital of the Chinese Empire, is in the north-eastern part of the country, near the River Peiho, and not far from the Great Wall; 50 miles further down the same river is the great port of Tientsin (750), about 30 miles from its mouth Peking consists of two walled cities, the northern being the Imperial or Tartar city, and the one to the south the Chinese or Commercial city. Nacking (270), which, as the "Court of the South," ranked second in importance to Peking, the "Court of the North," is on the south bank of the Yang-tse. Though declared a "Treaty Port" in 1858, it has not yet been opened to foreign trade.

Shanghai (651), on the coast at the southern entrance to this great river, was first opened to European commerce in 1842, and has become the chief comme.cial emporium of China. Steamers from Europe and Japan run re,ularly to Shanghai, but, in the season, British and other foreign steamers go up the river to Hankau (870) the chief mart of the ten districts in the interior. Chinese steamers also run regularly between Shanghai and Hankau, a distance of about 700 miles, and above Hankau, British steamers run to Ichang 45, over 1,000 miles from the sea, while smaller vessels ply as far as Chung king (6.0, which lies at the head of river navigation on the Yang-tse, 600 miles above Ichang.

Fuchau (620) is a great tea port, and the chief outlet of the "black tea province of Fokien. It also has large manufactures of cotton and porcelain. Amoy (114) is an important manufacturing and commercial town on an island off the coast of Fokien, opposite Formosa. Singan (1,000), the capital of the Province of Shensi, is a walled city, 6 m les square, and the largest town in the interior of China. The Chinese Court resided here for some time after the allies captured Peking in 1900.