Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/740

* CHINESE EMPIRE. 642 CHINESE EMPIRE. regions — most of the populous regions of China proper being comparatively treeless, except where there are fruit orchards — there are the tallow, varnish, and camphor trees, the pine and banyan, the cypress and mulberry. The mul- berry is cultivated by the millions, but rather as a bush, and almost wholly for its leaf, which is the food of silkworms. In the south the cocoanut and other kinds of palm, with the sub- tropical fruits and nuts, are numerous. Among the fruits, those of the Occidental genera prevail in the north, such as apples, grapes, peaches, many excellent varieties having been introduced from America. In the south the oranges, pine- apples, mangoes, lichi, bananas, and many fruits of native growth without European cojnmon names, enable most of the inhabitants to enjoy fruit throughout the year. The bamboo, of which over sixty varieties have been described, is of all sizes, furnishing not only its young sprouts as food, but serving numberless pur- poses. What iron is to the American, bamboo is to the Chinese. It is used in the building trades, in the decorative arts, and in the manu- facture of furniture and utensils, and especially of paper. It plays an im])ortanl part in phar- macy. It fiirnisbcs themes for Chinese poets. "Order is maintained throughout the whole em- pire by it, and a sprig of it is borne in the van of the funeral procession." JIany plants now common in the West, such as camelias, azaleas, and gardenias, are natives of China. Fai.:na. The vast tracts of sparsely inhabit- ed country, and the wide variations of ele- vation and climate, cause considerable dif- ferentiation in the fauna. Tigers, panthers, leopards, wildcats, civet-cats, tree-civets and mar- tens, black and brown bears, twenty species of bats, several varieties of monkeys, wolves, foxes, antelopes, deer of eleven kinds, including three of the musk-deer, and, in Vun-nan Province, the elephant, rhinoceros, and tapir, are some of the wild animals. The water-bulTalo, cattle and horses, sheep and goats, mules and donkeys, pigs of various varieties, weasels, otters, badgers, stoats, sea-otters, moles, niuskrats, hedgehogs, hrircs and rabbits, a dozen kinds of squirrels, and Iwenty-five species of rats and mice are known. The lists of Swinhoe and David contain two hun- dred species of mammalia. Sea-food is so abun- dant that in Macao one may have a different kind of fish for breakfast every morning in the year, it is said. Porpoises, finwhalos, eels, sharks, and sturgeons are numerous off the coasts; and alligators, snakes, frogs, and tortoises aboimd. Of birds, over seven hundred species have already been described. The entomology has been very litle studied. Locusts in swarms often do great damage, and scorpions, the mantis or 'praying beetle,' centipedes, fireflies, and beetles are found everywhere. Geology attd Mtxerat, REsorRCES. Our knowledge of the geological conformation of China is limited to the incomplete records of von Eichthofen and a few other scientists who have jjenetralcd into the interior, and to the reports of mining engineers on portions of Jlan- churia and China i)roper. It is known, however, that most of China is floored by geological for- mations of Mesozoic or older times, the only areas presenting earlier formations l)eing the great plain of the lower Hoang-ho, and the smaller plain of the Yang-tse-kiang, which are covered by Quaternary deposits. The mountain ranges are composed of Arducan rocks, granites, gneisses, and schist or Paleozoic rocks, and the valleys of Paleozoic or Mesozoic beds. Perhaps the most remarkable and characteristic forma- tion is the friable brownish-yellow earth called 'loess,' which forms a mantle several hundred feet thick spreading over the higlu'st hills and deepest valleys, and, by its bold sculpturing into terraced and steppe-like prominences, making a picturesque land.scape. The loess formation is particularly prominent in the provinces of Shen- si, Shan-si. llonau, and Shantung, along the Hoaug-ho ^'alley, where it occupies an area of many thousand scpiare miles. The soil in these regions is exceedingly fertile; but, owing to its porous, absorbent character, a large rainfall is re- quired to make it productive. 'ast amounts of the loess are washed annually into the Ho-ang-ho and borne seaward by that river. The most valuable of China's mineral re- sources are the deposits of coal, which are said to extend over more than 400.000 square miles, and to exceed those of any other coiuitry in the world. Coal is known to exist in every one of the eighteen provinces, but at present is mined in only a few localities. Among these are Kai-ping. in Pe-chi-li, Fang-shan (anthra- cite), Po-slian, in Shan-tung. Chang-kin. I-chow, 1-sien, and Kan-su. Beds of anthracite are known to exist in eastern Shan-si, and of bituminous coal in the western part of the same province, each field being estimated to have an area of 13,500 square miles. Of metals China has been pro- ductive since remote antiquity. Gold is still washed from the sands of the. uir River in Manchuria, and along the up])er course of the Yang-tse-kiang, and auriferous quartz veins are worked in the mountains of Pe-chili and Shan- tung. Mining as conducted by the natives, how- ever, is exceedingly crude and on a limited scale. The workings are abandoned upon reaching wa- ter-level, and consequently the l)est mines have long been i<lle. The present annual output of gold probably does not exceed $:i..JU0,0OO. Silver lead ores are i)roduced in Pechi-li and Yunnan, the values in silver sometimes being as high as .500 ounces per ton. Copper-mines, of which strnie are under Government control, were exploited long before the Christian era, the metal being particularly prized for coinage jmrposcs. There are rich deposits in Yunnan and Ilu-nan. Inm ore is found in Shansi, in juxtaposition with coal. Tin and quicksilver ores are known to occur in extensive deposits, but they are wrought in small quantities and by crude metliods. The salt-works of Sze chuen present an example of a Chinese industry attaining a development com- parable to that of the more progressive nations. Artesian wells are driven to depths of l.'iOO feet or more, to reach the brine, which is ))umpcd through bamboo tubing and evaporated over fur- naces, natural gas being used for fuel. Fnmi these works the salt is transported down the Yang-tse-kiang and marketed in distant parts of the empire. Within recent years foreign capi- talists have endeavored to develop the mining in- dustry of China, and some valuable concessions have been secured. I'nder these governmental grants active operations were begun in the min- ing districts of the northern provinces, but, un- fortunately, the political troubles prevented a suc- cessful issue. It is certain that the industry will