File:The world- historical and actual (1886) (14596896879).jpg

Identifier: worldhistoricala00gilb (find matches)
Title: The world: historical and actual
Year: 1886 (1880s)
Authors: Gilbert, Frank, 1839-1899. (from old catalog)
Subjects: World history
Publisher: Chicago, Fairbanks & Palmer publishing co
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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the Gulf ofPe-chi-li and Corea, it corresponds in latitude withthat portion of the United States south of the south-ern line of New York State and that part of Mex-ico north of the city of Vera Cruz. It lies south ofall Europe, except the southern portions of the Span-ish, Roman and Grecian peninsulas and their out-lying islands. About half of China Proper is hillyor mountainous, containing a large proportion oflauds which cannot be cultivated even by the labori-ous methods of terrace-farming and artificial irri-gation, so largely practiced in that country. From its southernmost limit, on the gulf of Ton.quin, to the Chusan Archipelago, nearly a thousandmiles northward, the lookout of China on the sea isindescribably cheerless. A range of disintegratedgranite mountains frowns, or, under a tropical sun,glares, on the passing voyager all the way. Treeless,shrubless, almost bladeless, their flanks of rottengranite gullied into red and yellow gulches, and their (434) f CHINESE EMPIRE. 435
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CHINESE EMPIRE. 437 intervening ridges and summits heaped with black-ened boulders, these desolate mountains yield nohint of the rich, populous interior just behind them.But within a hundred and fifty miles of Shanghaithe prospect changes. Here the charming ChusanArchipelago appears off the Bay of Hangchow.These islands are beautifully terraced from theirsummits to the sea. Temples perched on the prin-cipal eminences or on the ledges of rocky promon-tories, where they can only be reached by steps cutin the solid rock, stand embowered in lovely groves ;shrines dot the waysides; walled towns andunwalledvillages are seen on every side; and around allglistens the sea, animatedby gaily pennoned junks andbevies of fishermens boats.Not far north of theseislands appears the low, flat,alluvial plain, on the edgeof which stands Shanghai,in the delta of the riverYang-tse-Kiang. This plainis one of the most remark-able geographical develop-ments of China. It extendsinland from Shanghai (innorth l

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