26 ASIA 



settlers, and the mixed forests of conifers and hard- wood 

 trees are now enormously reduced, and restricted to 

 some of the valleys : destructive floods also have arisen, 

 and the hills have been stripped of their soil. Gradually, 

 towards the east, with more abundant rains and a some- 

 what less extreme climate, forest-clad slopes of a European 

 type, and fertile valleys like that of the Usuri, appear, 

 and form a transition to the Amur-Usuri region. The 

 natural wealth, both mineral and agricultural, render 

 this district an important asset in the development of 

 eastern Asia. 



The Gobi-Manchuria barrier, the Great Khingan escarp- 

 ment, being slightly higher, succeeds in wringing more 

 moisture out of the south-easterly winds. The Khingan 

 slopes are naturally well wooded, conifers being still the 

 outstanding feature in forests of a European type. Much 

 of the timber, however, has given way to cultivation and 

 to pastures. As might be expected, the eastern slopes of 

 the chain are richer than those facing the Gobi. 



Northern China. Manchuria is separated from China 

 proper, west of the Gulf of Liaotung, by a broken high- 

 land of moderate height, compressed between the Khin- 

 gans and the sea. 



In China, agriculture, continued for long centuries, has 

 altered the natural appearance of the land to such an 

 extent that the primitive aspect of the vegetation can 

 only be reconstructed with extreme difficulty. Despite 

 the severity of the winters, a fertile soil, an abundant 

 rainfall, and an absence of protracted droughts make 

 northern China support an abundant plant life, which 

 naturally would be a dense forest growth. It is possible 

 to see from what is actually left that this forest once 

 existed and was of a northern, summer-green, broad- 

 leaved type mixed with conifers, and so analogous to our 



