able natural productions, and abounds in the salangan swallow, which forms an edible nest, that is much esteemed by the Chinese. The capital is Huè.

23. TONQUIN. - Tonquîn', a country much subject to hurricanes, has valuable mineral and vegetable productious, and its oranges are said to be the best in the world Cachä'o, or Kesh'o, is the capital.

1. The Chinese Empire, in its most extensive sense, in cludes the country of China, Chinese Tartary, Thibet', and Core'a; and, with regard to population, it exceeds all other empires in the world, and, in extent of territory, is second only to the Russian empire.

2. China, properly so called, is a large, fertile, highly cultivated, and populous country, extending from the Great Wall on the north, to the gulf of Tonquin on the south.

23. What is said of Tonquin ?

CHINA.1. What is said of the Chinese empire? 2. What are the limits of China proper?

See Map of Asia.

Where is the strait of Malacca? The gulf of Siam? The gulf of Tonquin? The island of An daman? What is the course of the river Irrawaddy, and where does it empty? The Meinam? The Mecon? How is the peninsula of Malacca situated? The Birman empire? Laos? Siam? Cam bodia? Cochin-China? Tonquin? How is Ummerapoora situated? Pegu? Rangoon? Malacca Pat'any? Siam. Saigon? Cachao ?

3. The surface is much diversified by mountains, hills, valleys, plains, and marshes; and it is watered by numerous rivers, and has many considerable lakes.

4. The two great rivers are the Ho'ang-Ho' or Yellow River, and Ki'an-Ku' or Yang'-tse-ki-ang', which are two of the largest in Asia.

5. The principal islands are Hai'nan, Formo'sa, and the Loo-choo' islands.

6. The climate is generally healthy; in the south hot, and in the north, cold, -more so than in countries under the same parallel in Europe.

7. The Great Wall, which bounds China on the north, is about 1,500 miles in length, and is the most enormous fabric on the globe. It is built of stone and brick, is nearly 30 feet high, and 14 broad at the top, and has towers with cannon placed in them, at the distance of about 100 paces from each other.

8. China is celebrated for inland navigation, by means of rivers and canals. The Imperial Canal, which extends from Pekin to Hang-tcheôu', about 600 miles in length, is the greatest work of the kind in the world.

9. The most celebrated and peculiar production of China is tea, which is the leaf of a small shrub, and is exported in great quantities to those parts of the globe where this lux ury is used.

10. The principal exports, besides tea, are silk, nankins, porcelain, sugar, cinnamon, and camphor.

11. The interior trade carried on between different parts of the empire, by means of rivers and canals, is very extensive; but foreign commerce with Europeans is limited to two places, namely, the port of Canton, in the south of China, and Kiakhta, on the borders of Siberia, the empo rium of the overland trade of Russia.

12. Agriculture is in high estimation; and the emperor annually, at the vernal equinox, performs the ceremony of holding the plough. But though the cultivation of the soil is attended to with great care, it is much less skilfully conducted than in Europe. The most important article of produce in the southern parts is rice.

13. Travellers who have visited this empire agree in asserting the appearance of a crowded population; but there has been a great difference in the statements of the number

3. What is said of the surface? 4. What rivers? 5. Islands? 6. What is said of the climate? 7. Great Wall? 8 Canals? 9. Tea? 10. Exports? 11. Commerce? 12. Agriculture' 13. Population?

of inhabitants, both of the country and the principal cities Some make the population of China 360,000,000; and some reduce it to less than half this number.

14. The government is patriarchal and despotic, but not violent. The Chinese style their country "The Celestial Empire," and the emperor "The Holy Son of Heaven, sole Ruler of the Earth, and Great Father of his People." His person is adored, and his subjects prostrate themselves in his presence.

15. There is no religion in China established or supported by government; yet temples and pagodas are every where common, and priests, styled bonzes, are numerous. The prevailing system is the religion of Fo, which is a species of Buddhism. The sect called Taotse are also numerous; and there are many professed followers of Confucius, the famous Chinese philosopher.

16. The Chinese are represented as remarkably vain, timid, artful, and vindictive; but very free from the vice of drunkenness.

17. Women in this country are uniformly sold in marriage, and are held in a state of the greatest degradation. The beauty of a woman, according to the notions of the Chinese, consists in the smallness of her eyes, the protuberance of her lips, the lankness and blackness of her hair, and especially in the extreme smallness of her feet.

18. The Chinese architecture is inelegant and clumsy, and altogether different from that of Europe. Their houses are generally only of one story, and those of the peasantry are miserable cottages.

19. PEKIN', the capital, is situated in the northeast part of China, and is supposed by many to be the most populous city on the globe. The streets are straight and wide, and the houses of only one story.

20. Nankin', situated on the Kian-Ku, at the junction of the great canal, is the first city with regard to manufac tures, and is noted for nankins, crapes, and silks; and also

14. What is said of the government? 15. Religion? 16. The Chinese? 17. Condition of women and idea of female beauty? 18. Architecture? 19. Pekin? 20. Nankin?

See Map of Asia. - What sea divides China from Corea? How is the island of Hainan situated? Formosa? Loo-choo? What are the rivers of China? Where is the Chinese wall? How is Pekin situated? Nankin? Canton? Singan? Hang-tcheou' How is Corea situated? What separates it from China?

How is Kingkitao situated?

for its Porcelain Tower, which is a fine specimen of oriental pagodas, and is ascended by 884 steps.

21. Canton, in the southern part, is noted for being the only port in China to which European and American vessels are admitted, and for the export of tea. Near Canton is the Bout Town, a kind of floating city, which is composed of barks ranged upon the water in the form of streets, and computed to contain from 100,000 to 300,000 people. 22. COREA, a country little known, consisting of a peninsula, is dependent on China.

1. Thibet', or Tibet', a country dependent on China, is remarkable for its great and general elevation, and for being the most mountainous country in Asia, and the centre of the Shaman religion.

2. It has been styled the Switzerland of Asia, on account of its resemblance to Switzerland in Europe, in its situation, in the extremely rugged and mountainous aspect of the country, and in being the region in which several great rivers have their rise.

21. What is said of Canton? 22. Corea?

THIBET.-1. What is said of Thibet? 2. Why has it been styled the Switzerland of Asia?

See Map No. X.- How are the Himmaleh mountains situated? What river flows through Thibet? What lakes are there? How is Lassa situated? [See Map of Asia.] What rivers rise in

Thibet?

3. Himmälleh or Himalaya Mountains, reputed the high est in the world, and having numerous summits that are always covered with snow, lie in the southern part.

4. Thibet abounds in animals, and is noted for the bushytailed bull, the deer which produces musk, and especially for the goat which affords the material used for the inanufacture of Cashmere shawls.

5. LAS'SA, the capital of Thibet, is situated on a branch of the Brahmnapootra, and is celebrated chiefly as the residence of the Grand Lama, the head of the Shaman religion on account of which the place is resorted to by numerous devotees.

CHINESE TARTARY.

1 Chinese Tartary is a vast country of Central Asia, cold and generally barren, extending from Independent Tartary to the Pacific ocean, and comprising Mongolia and Little Bukha'ria in the west, and Mandshuria in the

east.

2. A remarkable feature of this country is its great eleva tion. It consists mostly of steppes or elevated plaius, supported like a tabie by the Altai mountains on the north, and the Himmälleh range on the southwest.

S. The vast desert of Cobi or Shä'mo, situated in the central part of Asia, is about 2,000 miles long, and is covered with a dark-colored sand, which is not, however. movable like that in the deserts of Arabia.

4. This region is inhabited by various pastoral and wandering tribes, some of the principal of which are the Monguls, Mandshurs or Mantchoos, Kalkas, and Eluths, who are mostly of the Shaman religion.

5. Some of the principal towns are Cash'gar, Yarkund', and Our ga (oor'ga).

3. What mountains? 4. Animals? 5. Lassa?

CHINESE TARTARY.—1. What are the situation and division of Chinese Tartary? 2. What is said of it? 3. What of the desert of Cobi? 4. Inhabitants? 5. What towns?

See Map of Asia. What seas and channel lie east of Chinese Tartary? What islands? What is the course of the Amour? How is the Desert of Cobi situated? Little Bukharia? Mongolia? Mandshuria? Cashgar? Yarkund? Ourga?