of forty-second among the continental ports of China in 1907 to the second place it holds in recent yearssecond only to Shanghai.

FORESTS

To-day Manchuria ranks as the most important of all the timber regions in the whole of China. In South Manchuria the lower slopes of the Changpai range along the Sungari and in the upper reaches of the Tumen are covered with forests which rank high among the timber lands of Manchuria. Standing next to this section are the Yalu and the Hun forests: they cover the mountains amid which the two rivers rise. In North Manchuria the timber land along the Chinese Eastern Railway line east of Harbin, especially about Hailin, is important, and the Sansing District ranks with it. In short, excellent forests cover all the mountain districts from the border of Chosen in the east to the boundary of Kirin and Mukden Provinces on the west. The forests reach southward down to the mouth of the Yalu. Although in the lower reaches of the Yalu River the tops of the Changpai peaks are all bald, as one comes down the heights he finds that all the skirts of the mountains are thickly wooded. The Kirin forests afford a cut of 25,000 board feet an acre, according to a trustworthy report. The trees are mostly of the pine family.

In Manchuria some 300 species of trees are known, but the varieties which dominate the forests there are not more than a dozen or so. Chosen pine occupies perhaps 60 per cent. of the forest area there, on which grow also Chosen fir, Ezo pine, Mongolian oak, Manchurian and Amur limes, Manchurian maples, and walnut. Among the hardwoods, besides oak, maple, walnut, and lime already mentioned, there are acanthopanax (a tree which usually stands 60 to 70 feet in height), ash,

cork-tree, and birch. Of these the common oak and another kind of oak called "nara" by the Japanese are dominant over the Changpai range. Some years ago the Japanese experts connected with the civil administration of the Leased Territory of Kwantung estimated the number of trees in the forests of Mukden Province at about 78,400,000 and the timber at slightly over twobillion cubic feet. For Kirin Province the figures were 100,600,000 trees and more than 1,663,000,000 cubic feet, and for Amur Province 6,299,000,000 trees and 126,115,000,000 cubic feet. The Great and Small Khingans carry about four-fifths of the entire timber of Manchuria. The pine trees in these forests are by far the most useful timber: they often attain the circumference of 13 to 14 feet and grow to more than 100 feet tall.

CLIMATE

Manchuria lies between 39 degrees and 53° 30' north latitude-within the same parallels as North America from Baltimore to the northern tip of Newfoundland, or from Cincinnati to Port Nelson on Hudson Bay. Within the same latitudes lie the great cities of Naples, Madrid, London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin. But the climatic conditions of Manchuria would give decidedly a new experience to the peoples of Naples and other Mediterranean ports of France and Italy. There are three distinct climates in Manchuria. Along the coast the sea makes conditions different from those of the mountain districts and forest regions, and the great plains have a still different climate of their own. In the coldest month of the year there, namely January, the temperature at the Port of Dairen averages 24° F. In the hottest month, August, it averages 76° F. At Harbin, 578 miles to the north of Dairen and standing on the western section of the mighty Sungari plain, the average tem

perature in January is below zero, and the summer heat in July averages about 72° F. In winter whenever low pressure areas develop along the Yangtze valley, a high northwester blows across the plains of Manchuria, bringing with it an extremely cold spell. In the spring terrific winds come out of the Mongolian plains. The great plains of Manchuria are heir to all the violent changes of a continental climate.

The rainfall in Manchuria amounts to about one half to one third of that of Japan, and about half of it comes in the two summer months of July and August. It is this downpour which causes the periodic floods in the valleys of all the great streams of the land from the Liao to the Nonni. In winter, which is dry, one rarely sees a foot of snow on the ground. The crops and all vegetation suffer from the lack of this blanket protection of snow. It rains more in the northern section than in the country south of Mukden. About Changchun there are some 80 to 90 days of rain a year; in southern sections not more than 60 to 70 days yearly. What hurts Manchurian farms more than anything else is the lack of sufficient moisture at seed-sowing time. It often altogether prevents the seeds from sprouting. Small wonder that drought is considered one of the major curses of nature by Manchurian farmers.

In South Manchuria the River Liao begins to freeze in the middle of November, and by the middle of December it is frozen all over. It remains frozen until the close of March, some ninety or more days of the year. River men count on 140 days of open season on the average. In North Manchuria the Sungari freezes up toward the close of November and remains closed until the middle of April. The Amur freezes up between the middle of October and the early days of November and does not open for navigation until about the middle of 'April.

CHAPTER III

THE PEOPLE

SUCH was the homeland of the race of people called the Tungus. They were as far away and as different from the Chinese in all essential and dominant characteristics as the Anglo-Saxon is from the Jew. In those twilight days of history while a wolf was still suckling Romulus on the banks of the Tiber the Chinese knew the original owners of the present Manchuria under the vague name of Sushen. They centered about the upper reaches of the Hurka River and along the Sungari, minding their own fields and flocks and nothing else. The future had much in store for them. The present people of Chosen and of Nippon are the posterities of the Tungus more than of any other races.

From the very dawn of history this race showed promise of its great destiny. The Tungus were, like Genghis Khan and his followers, hunters, nomads, warriors and herdsmen. They were no doubt closely allied to the Mongol Tartars in blood. But they were also, unlike them, but like the Chinese to the south, tillers of the soil. It is this combination of occupations by this singular race that tells a story that is really big. The racial trait which this combination of their occupations indicates came to flower in the rise of two states in the valleys of Manchuria-the Kaoli and the Fuyu State.

The people of Kaoli were largely huntsmen and warriors. They rose to power some 1,800 years ago, about the middle of the Han Dynasty in China. They centered in the valley of the Yalu and dominated most of what