Page:China historical and descriptive.djvu/25

 Yellow and China Seas; south by the Gulf of Tonquin, Assam, Siam, and Burmah; and south-west and west by India and the States of Independent Tartary. The northern bend of the Amoor River, in latitude 53° N., is the limit of the Empire in that direction; and the junction of the Amoor and Usuri Rivers in longitude 136° E. is its most eastern point. The Bay of Galong, in the Island of Hainan — latitude 18° N. — is the southern extreme, and Kara-tag, to the westward of Yarkand — longitude 72° E. — is the western limit of this enormous Empire, whose area is variously estimated at from 5,000,000 to 5,559,564 square miles, or about a third part of the continent, and a tenth of the habitable globe. With the exception of Russia, it is the largest state which has ever existed.

But with the tributaries and dependencies of the Empire we have little to do in these pages. In many of them the supremacy of the Emperor is merely nominal, and they are almost virtually independent. Perhaps its very vastness may eventually prove fatal to the integrity of the Empire, for a wily and aggressive neighbour is always watching its frontiers, and an insurgent body of Mahommedans are in possession of portions of China proper, to which I propose confining the present volume.

China proper extends from longitude 98° to 123° E., and from latitude 18° to 43° N., and is bounded on the north by the Great Wall, which separates it from Manchooria and Mongolia; on the east by the ocean; on the south by the Gulf of Tonquin, Assam, and Burmah; and on the west by Thibet and Chinese Tartary. Its area is estimated by Sir