The populous Land of the Orient. 123 



sible and unknown into India. East of the head-waters of these 

 two rivers rise the rivers of Siam and Farther India. 



Further to the northeast rise the great rivers of Cliina, the 

 Hoang-ho and Yang-tse-kiang. Their valleys are separated by 

 high chains of mountains, extending in a northwest and south- 

 east direction. The Hoang-ho runs north and east through the 

 temperate zone of Cliina, and the Yang-tse-kiang south and east 

 through the semi-tropical regions of middle China. As they 

 gradually approach, they inclose a great valley and become the 

 arteries of the superabundant life of the empire. The eastern 

 part of this great valley, watered by the winds from the China 

 sea, is crossed from northeast to southwest by parallel ridges, 

 from which numerous streams descend. The valley of eastern 

 China is thus abundantly watered and the rich soil yields boun- 

 tiful crops. For thousands of years this region has been the 

 home of the Chinese, a self-dependent world. It is a limited 

 territory of 1,300,000 square miles area, no larger than the valley 

 of the Mississippi ; yet it sustains a jjopulation of 400,000,000, 

 or one-third of the joeople of the globe. 



North of the Kuen Luen mountains, and the valley of the 

 Hoang-ho and south of the Thian Shan, is the plateau of the 

 Tarim, sometimes called Eastern Turkestan. It is much lower 

 than Tibet, and is traversed by cross-ranges of hills or low moun- 

 tains, through which flows the river Tarim. Little rain falls 

 on this plateau, the sand from the desert is gradually covering 

 the fertile valleys, the ancient lakes are now little more than 

 salt marshes, and Avhere formerly lived bands of Huns and Van- 

 dals that overran Europe, now only a few shepherds find a 

 scanty living. This part of the world seems exhausted. " With- 

 out a shrub or tree or blade of grass," and no longer fit for the 

 residence of man, it has become the sole home of the wild horse 

 and the yak. East of this plateau of Tarim are the deserts of 

 Gobi and Mongolia, which extend far eastward toward the sea of 

 Japan, a high range of mountains separating Mongolia, however, 

 from the sea-coast, so that only dry winds blow over these great 

 deserts. 



North of the Thian Shan and the Altai mountains is the great 

 plain of Siberia. It starts from a lower level than that of the 

 Tarim desert and descends with a gradual slope northward for 

 1,500 miles to the Arctic ocean. These plains resemble in some 

 respects the great plains of the United States, but the latter 



