Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/17

Rh and unbeaten tracks, since thirteen of its eighteen chapters are devoted to a description of my journey across the interior of China. The exceptions are chapters i., iv., xii., xvii., and xviii., which deal with various matters as follows: chapter i., with the positions of Japan and China in the Far East respectively, and with the contrast which they present; chapter iv., with the much-debated question of the navigation of the middle reaches of the Yang-tsze river; chapter xii., with the intricacies of the opium question; and chapters xvii. and xviii., with the building of the frontier between Burma and the Chinese Empire.

On the other hand, volume ii. is composed mainly of a series of essays upon subjects of more especial interest to those who are themselves personally interested, either directly or indirectly, in the development of Far Eastern affairs—the student, the politician, the financier, the merchant, and the manufacturer. Of the thirteen chapters composing this volume, nine are devoted to a critical examination of Japan's place in the Far East.