Amador ledger., 1900-07-20
CHINA AND ITS inhabitants
Boxers Not a Representative
Type.
The GREAT BULK OF The CHINESE Peaceful
Agriculture Their Principal 0ccupa-
tion.- Irrigation Methods
Are Crude.

Although the vast mobs which infest
Pekin and the larger cities of China,
worked up to state of frenzy and
fanaticism, have rendered impossible
any satisfactory action by the avail
able forces of the Powens, the great
Chinese population proper is agricul-
tural and naturally extremely peaceful
and peace-loving. Agriculture, how
ever, is most primitive and the wonder
is how such an immense population can
be supported from the soil, until the
great economy practiced in all things
is understood. On the Great Plain OF
China, every available foot of land is
utilized for. growing somethiak and
every particle OF fertility returned to
the soil. Waters are used for irriga-
tion and in many cases laboriously dis.
tributed over the fields.
The Great Plain itself is one of the
most wonderful sections of the globe.
1t is about 700 miles in length and
varies from 200 to 400 miles in width,
occupying the northeastern part OF the
empire, and containing over 200, 600
square miles of wonderfully fertile SOIL
The most interesting feature of this
plain is its enormous population as it
supports, according to the census OF
1872, not less than III million human
beings, making it the most densely
settled of any part of the world of the
same size, its inhabitants amounting to
nearly two-thirds of the entire popula-
tion of Europe.
OF STRATEGICAL IMPORTANCE.
The most wonderful feature in the
physical geography of China is the ex-
istence of vast region OF loess in this
portion of the Empire. Loess is very
solid but friable earth. brownish yell
low in color and is found in many places
from 500 to 1000 feet deep. The loess
hills rise in terraces from 20 to several
hundred feet in height. Every atom
of loess is perforated by small tubes
after the hammer Of root fibres, only
the direction OF these little channels is
always from above downward so that
cleavage In the loess mass is invariably
vertical. The loess region of China is
perhaps the most broken country in
the world; with its sheer cliffs, and up
right walls, terraces and deep cut
ravines. Owing to the ease with which
it can be worked, caves made at the
bases of straight cliffs, afford homes to
millions of people in the densely popu-
lated northern provinces where the
Boxers have thus far been most active.
Whole villages cluster together in
carved out chambers, some of which
extend back more than 200 feet. The
capabilities of defense in country such
as this, where an invading army must
necessarily become lost and absolutely
bewildered in the tangle of interlacing
ways and where the defenders may
always remain concealed or have in
numerable means of escape is peculiar
ly Significant at this time when consid-
Grafton is being given to conquest OF
China.
1t may not be generally known that
the Chinese were the discoverer of coal
as fuel. The Venetian traveller Marco
Polo says, 'Tt is fact that all over the
country of Cathay China there is a
kind of black stone existing in the beds
of the mountains which they dig out
and burn like firewood. This stone
burns better and costs less"
GREAT RIVERS.
The rivers of China are her glory
and there are few countries in the
world so we'll watered and none with
such splendid natural water transpor-
tation facilities. The three great
rivers of the Empire are the Yang-tse-
Kiang Child of the Ocean, the Hoang
Ho yellow River) and the Chu Kiang
Pearl River or Canton River.) Oh
these the Yang-tse Kiang is much the
largest, flowing through extensive and
fertile plains and finally emptying into
the Eastern Sea, after trayersing a
distance of 1000 miles. It's discharge
| is estimated at one million cubic feet
per second. The banks of the Yang.
tsz are crowded with towns and vii
lages, the most famous of which are
NaHkin and the new treaty port oil
! lHaukow. The Hoank Ho Or Yellow
river is noted especially for its fire.
quent and violent floods. Its current
is very rapid and its course sinuous,
nearly approaching in length the Yang
tsz. The Pearl or Canton river while
not nearly so large as the others, is a
stream of great Importance and innum-
cradle vessels trade upon its waters.
At some points it spreads into large
lakes; in others it passes between mar
row gorges which if damned would af-
ford large storage capacity for irriga-
tion. The Chinese, however, have not
practically worked out irrigation in its
different phases as completely as would
be expected of such an agricultural
people.
Irrigation, 4eyertheless, is practiced
to considerable extent through the
use Of the waters of the Grand Canal
and by wells. The Grand or Imperial
Canal is work of great magnitude.
1t was constructed in the 7th century
and enlarged in the 18th century. 1t