Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/85

Rh -bearing streams. In addition to the ordinary advantages of soil and variety of climate to which such a large expanse is naturally entitled, China enjoys one special favor in the singular deposit known as Loess.

The country lying north from the Yang-tze to the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, part of which area has been made by the alluvial deposits of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, is known as the Great Plain. Of this territory there is a considerable section in the provinces of Shen-si, Shan-si and Shan-tung, which is known as the Loess formation. This particular soil is yellow in appearance, resembling alluvial material, but on examination is found to consist of a network of minute capillary tubes. The best theory for its deposit is that it is the fine dust of dried vegetable matter carried down by the winds from the northwest plains and dropped where found. The fine tubes are accounted for by believing them to be the spaces occupied by the roots of grasses, as the latter have been continually raising themselves to keep on the consequently rising surface. The Loess soil is of great and unknown thickness, of extraordinary fertility and with great capacity for withstanding droughts, as the tubes by their capillary action serve to bring up moisture from the ground water below. This part of the Great Plain has been supplying crops for many centuries without fertilizing and supports the densest part of the Chinese population.

In minerals, China is particularly rich. Of the precious metals, gold and silver are known to exist, and probably in paying quantities, while of the less valuable metals, copper, lead, antimony and others have been found, and but await the introduction of proper transportation methods to be developed. Petroleum occurs in Sz-chuen, the extreme western province lying next to Tibet. But China's greatest mineral wealth lies in iron and coal. The great fields of the latter are in Pe-chi-li, Shen-si, Shan-si, Sz-chuen, Kiang-si and Hu-nan, where all varieties from soft bituminous to very hard anthracites are found. Of the former there are coals, both coking and non-coking, fit for steel-making or steam uses, while of the latter there are those adapted for domestic use, with sufficient volatile matter to ignite easily, and others sufficiently hard to bear the burden in a blast furnace and sufficiently low in phosphorus, sulphur and volatile substances to render them available for the manufacture of Bessemer pig, as is done in Pennsylvania. Chinese houses are usually without chimneys, and, therefore, the native is compelled to use for domestic purposes an anthracite, or, as he calls it, a non-smoking coal, which he burns in an open fireplace, the products of combustion escaping through the doors, unglazed windows or the many leaks which are usually found in Chinese roofs.

In opposing the introduction of occidental reforms, methods and commercial relations, China has invited, if not actually obliged, the