ASIA. 



31 



ard for examinations in certain branches of 

 study. His case was discussed later on in a meet- 

 ing by President Hayes and his Cabinet, and by 

 order of the President a trial by court martial, 

 on the charges of duplicity made against him, 

 was accorded to take place in January, 1881. 

 General Schofield has been relieved of his 

 command at West Point, and General Howard 

 placed in charge of the post. 



ASIA. The sixth issue of Behm and Wag- 

 ner's* publication, "Die Bevoikerung der 

 Erde" (Gotha, 1880), estimates the territory 

 of Asia at 17,210,044 square miles, or 44,572,- 

 000 square kilometres, and the present popu- 

 lation at 834,707,000. Not included in this 

 number are the Polar Regions, to which the 

 editors of this periodical now assign an inde- 

 pendent position among the large divisions of 

 the land-surface of the earth. We give their 

 estimates of the area and population of these 

 regions in the article POLAE REGIONS. 



As long as the final results of the Kulja 

 treaty between Russia and China are not 

 known, there is some uncertainty about the 

 present boundaries of these two empires. The 

 area and population of the large divisions of 

 Asiatic Russia are set down as follows : 



For the Turkish possessions in Asia the fol- 

 lowing figures are given : 



The area of the still independent region be- 

 tween Khiva, Bokhara, Afghanistan, Persia, 

 and the Russian Transcaspian district, is given 

 as 206,500 square kilometres, with a popula- 

 tion, according to Vamb6ry, of 450,000. The 

 only stock that have up to the present mo- 

 ment retained their entire independence are 

 the Tekkes, of whom 200,000 are Akhal Tek- 

 kes, frequenting the oases at the foot of the 

 Kuren-Dagh ; the remainder, about 100,000, 

 have their seat to the east, at present in Merv. 

 Of Khiva the area is given as 57,800 square 

 kilometres, and the population 700,000. The 

 total number of people of the Turkoman stock 

 in Central Asia is given as 1,100,000. Bo- 



* For a fuller reference to this periodical, which has now 

 become the great fountain from which all statistical works are 

 supplied, see article EARTH in the present volume of the 

 " Annual Cyclopaedia." 



t One square kilometre = 0'8S6 English square mile. 



khara, with the adjacent districts of Karate- 

 gin, Shignan, Roshan, etc., which the English- 

 Russian treaty about the northern frontier of 

 Afghanistan recognized as subject to Bokhara, 

 has an area of 239,000 square kilometres, and 

 a population of 2,130,000. 



The total area of Arabia is given at 3,156,- 

 600 square kilometres, and the population 

 5,000,000 ; of this, 2,507,390 square kilometres, 

 with a population of 3,700,000, are still inde- 

 pendent of Turkey. 



On the basis of new estimates for one or 

 two districts of Persia, the area of this coun- 

 try is now set down as 1,647,070 square kilo- 

 metres, with a population of 7,000,000. The 

 district of Khotoor, ceded to Persia by Turkey, 

 in virtue of the Berlin Treaty of 1878, has an 

 area of 1,125 square kilometres, and a popula- 

 tion of 8,000. 



As the Afghan-English Treaty of Gunda- 

 muk, of May 28, 1879, which placed the dis- 

 tricts of Kuram, Pisheen, and Sibi under the 

 protection and the administration of the Brit- 

 ish Government, was annulled by the subse- 

 quent hostilities, and a new agreement had not 

 been made up to February, 1880, Behm and 

 Wagner continue to set down the area of Af- 

 ghanistan as 721,664 kilometres, and the pop- 

 ulation as 4,000.000. At the same time they 

 give the detailed lists of the various tribes and 

 stocks published by A. H. Keane in " Nature " 

 (January 22, 1880), as the result of careful and 

 independent research, and yielding as the esti- 

 mate of population the much higher figure of 

 6,145,000, which may be still further increased 

 by a more accurate knowledge of the country. 

 (See AFGHANISTAN.) Kafiristan has an area of 

 51,687 square kilometres, and a population of 

 1,000,000, and Beloochistan 276,515 square 

 kilometres, and 350,000 inhabitants. 



China with all its dependencies has an area 

 of 11,813,750 square kilometres, and a popula- 

 tion of 434,626,500. The latter figure is, how- 

 ever, very uncertain ; some authorities main- 

 taining that it is much too high, and others 

 much too low. Hong-Kong had (1876) an area 

 of 83 square kilometres, and a population of 

 139,144 inhabitants ; Macao (1879), 11-75 square 

 kilometres and 77,230 inhabitants. Japan, ac- 

 cording to official statistics of 1878, had an 

 area of 379,711 kilometres, and a population 

 of 34,338,504. 



The total area of the immediate British pos- 

 sessions in India, including British Burmah, is 

 given as 2,329,201 square kilometres (=899,- 

 341 square miles), and of tributary states as 

 1,444,922 square kilometres (=577,903 square 

 miles); population of the former, 191,095,445, 

 of the latter, 49,203,053 ; total British posses- 

 sions, 240,298,500. The French possessions in 

 India have an area of 508 square kilometres, 

 and a population (1877) of 280,381 ; the Portu- 

 guese, an area of 3,855 square kilometres, and 

 a population in 1877 of 444,957. Ceylon has 

 an area of 24,702 square miles, and a popula- 

 tion in 1877 of 2,755,557. 



