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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



provinces, which may be compared in a general way to our states. The 

 provinces are, however, generally larger than the states and on the 

 whole much more populous. There is still greater dissimilarity in gov- 

 ernment because, whereas our states are representative democracies, the 

 Chinese provinces were, at least until within a year or two, satrapies 

 ruled absolutely by imperial governors or viceroys. 



Not a few people in America picture China as a vast fertile plain, 

 perhaps like the upper Mississippi valley, densely populated and in- 

 tensively cultivated. In fact, however, it is so generally mountainous, 

 that less than one tenth of its surface is even moderately flat. On the 

 west, especially, it is ribbed with cordilleras from which its two great 

 rivers, the Yang-tze-Kiang and the Huang-ho flow eastward to the 

 Pacific. 



south-wcst 



NORTH-CAST 





PRE-CAflBRIAN 



^^^M^mmimimmM 



CARBONIFEROUS 



CRETACEOUS- EOCENE 



MIOCENE 



SltCHUAN Air* SltCHUAH BA%IN CLNTAAl RAHGIS 



SHAVSI PtfiTEAUS 



HUANG-HO PLAIN 



SHANTUNG MTS 



PRESENT 



Fig. 2. Diagrams to illustrate Geological Conditions in China at Different 



Periods in its History. The features are necessarily much 



generalized and in part hypothetical. 



