JAPAN 23 



highlands or Alps, having a coastal plain or hill land of 

 varying breadth. 



Eastern Margin of the Great Central Plateau. The 

 plateaus of Mongolia and Tibet are limited on the east 

 by the Great Khingan and the mountainous margin of 

 eastern Tibet. The winds, which are sucked inland 

 from the Pacific by the excessive heating of the interior 

 in summer, deposit much of their moisture on the eastern 

 slope ; but before reaching it, they water abundantly the 

 hilly lands of China. The whole of this marginal region 

 is benefited by the wet monsoons, and is fertile. That 

 the strength and beneficial effect of the monsoons gradu- 

 ally decrease from south to north is partly shown by the 

 fact that the Tibetan margin, which is abundantly 

 watered, is ploughed by mighty rivers, whereas the 

 Khingan escarpments, receiving only a meagre rainfall, 

 are not deeply eroded. In winter the air is forced out- 

 wards from the cold interior, and north-westerly winds, 

 which are very cold and dry, sweep over the marginal 

 lands. The broad belt of lower lands, which extends 

 from 10 N. to 50 N., passes gradually from equatorial to 

 nearly polar conditions. Equatorial conditions persist 

 along the deltas and marshes of the coast as far as the 

 Tropic of Cancer. Sub-tropical nature advances as far 

 as the mouth of the Yang-tse, while the warm temperate 

 climate reaches to southern Korea. 



Manchuria is sharply limited on all sides but one by 

 mountains : the Khingan scarps on the west and north, 

 the Sikhota Alin and Korean Highlands on the east and 

 south. The vast rolling plain thus defined, lying at 

 500 feet above sea-level, is too low to condense a due 

 proportion of the moisture of the Pacific winds on their 

 way from Korea to the Khingans. It is too far north 

 to profit much by the monsoons, but in winter is swept 



