The magnitude of China is almost overwhelming. In spite
of all that I had read, I was amazed by what I saw. To say
that the Empire has an area of 4,218,401 square miles is almost
like saying that it is 255,000,000,000 miles to the North Star;
the statement conveys no intelligible idea. The mind is only
confused by such enormous figures. But it may help us to remember
that China is one-third larger than all Europe, and that if the
United States and Alaska could be laid upon China there
would be room left for several Great Britains. Extending from
the fifty-fourth parallel of latitude southward to the eighteenth,
the Empire has every variety of climate from arctic cold to
tropic heat. It is a land of vast forests, of fertile soil, of rich
minerals, of navigable rivers. The very fact that it has so long
sustained such a vast population suggests the richness of its
resources. There are said to be 600,000,000 acres of arable soil,
and so thriftily is it cultivated that many parts of the Empire
are almost continuous gardens and fields. Four hundred and
nineteen thousand square miles are believed to be underlaid
with coal. Baron von Richthofen thinks that 600,000,000,000
tons of it are anthracite, and that the single Province of Shen-si
could supply the entire world for a thousand years. When we
add to this supply of coal the apparently inexhaustible deposits
of iron ore, we have the two products on which material greatness
largely depends.

The population proves to be even greater than was supposed,
for while 400,000,000 was formerly believed to be a maximum
estimate, the general census recently taken by the Chinese
Government for the purpose of assessing the war tax places the
population of the Empire at 426,000,000. This, however,