Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/24

 also are thus gained of the great work actually accomplished by our American misssonaries for science and civilization in this corner of the globe during their self-imposed exile of half a century.

Indo-China is the south-east corner of Asia, a sharply-defined, two-pronged peninsula outjutting from China just below the Tropic of Cancer, its long Malayan arm almost touching the equator, bounded east, south and west by water. Southward, the Eastern Archipelago stretches toward Australia, "a kind of Giants' Causeway by means of which a mythological Titan might have crossed from one continent to another."

Along the north the extreme south-west angle of the Celestial Empire, by name Yunnan, lies in immediate contact with the Burmese, the Laos and the Tonquinese frontiers, whence the main rivers of the peninsula divide their streams.

may be regarded as a lower terrace projecting from the giant Thibetan plateau—an extensive, uneven table-land, separated for the most part by mountains from contiguous regions. The northern portion is a confused tangle of lofty ranges, with peaks rising above the snow-*line, and few inhabited valleys—a region, in a word, compared to which Switzerland is an easy plain—of wild romantic scenery, ravines, torrents and landslips, but with little industry or commerce. Maize is used for food throughout the sparsely-populated district, since rice cannot