The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1895-03-30

shown in that direction. Dlllgent ln-
vestigation OH the part OF the present
writer reveals the fact that there are q
good many interesting things to be
learned about the faraway Asiatic is
land in question. Like all other lands
of the ultimate orient, the habits and
customs of its inhabitants are about as
unlike the habits and customs Of those
who dwell in the occident as can we'll
be imagined. But, unlike Korea, e
which the whole trouble between the
Celestial empire and the Islands of the
Rising Sun arose. Formosa is not peo-
pied by a distinct race, nor is 1t the seat
of a civilization Of its own.
The Chinese say that the island first
became known to their ancestors a little
over 400 years ago. 1t is hardly proba-
BILE, however, that they mean exactly
what they say when they make this as
s~ertion, since only about 80 or 80 miles
of sea separate Formosa from the main
land, and there are times when the tops
of the highest Formosan peaks may be
distinguished from, the Chinese coast
near Annoy, 1t is more likely that the
Chinese mean to convey the impression
century that their countrymen began to
emigrate to Formosa and to settle on its
shores.
At all events, Chinese colonization
must have begun at about that time, for,
near the close of the seventeenth CEN
fury, when the Japanese found the is
land and essayed to plant the flag of the
sunburst there and to work Formosa in
as a commercial integer of the Chrysan-
themum empire, the Chinese were very
much on hand and very much alive to
the advantages of retaining possession
of the place. PROFESSIONALLY this has
been a good thing for the Chinese ever
since.
Formosa is about half as large as Ire
land. 1t stretches from north to south
over q little less than foul degrees of
latitude, its no%rthernmost point being
slightly farther south than the south
ernmost point of Florida 1t forms part
Of the chain of islands which ''are in
terposed as a protective fertilization be-
tween the Asiatic coast and the broad
expanse of the Pacific. " producing the
immunity from the fury of the typhoon
which is enjoyed by the Chinese ports
from Annoy to the Yellow sea.
In shape Formosa is long and narrow,
tapering to a point at the southern ex-
tremlty, known AS Lin-hai-shan, or
South cape. From Lin-hai-shan nearly
to Fokl. the islands most northerly
point. a backbone of mountains, known
simply as Ta-shan, OF Great mountain,
by the Chinese, stretches somewhat to
the east of the median line. The de.
scent from this range to the east is quite
abrupt, but to the west it is much more
gradual, SO that there is a rather broad
plain on the side nearest China and an
other, though less extensive one, to the
north The soil of these plains is ex.
c%eedinglv fertile, particularly in the
wales, where the subsoil of sand and
clay is covered with a deep and rich
alluvlal mold. 1t is only the compare
lively level portions Of the island that
have been s%ubjugated by the Celestials,
the mountainous districts and the rapid
eastern slopes still being populated
chiefly by aboriginal tribes. So fertile
are the plains occupied 'by the Chinese
and so diligently and effectively has cul