And the utmost length, from the wintry island of Saghalien, on the N. E., to the most western bend of the Belur chain, in Turkestan, is about seventy-seven degrees. These possessions, occupying so large a portion of Asia, and in extent inferior only to the vast dominions of Russia, may be classed under three principal divisions, viz;
I. China Proper, or the Empire as it existed under the Ming dynasty, which ruled in China from 1368 until the Mantchou conquest, in 1644.
II. Mantchou, or, as it has been latinized, Mantchouria, the native country of the reigning dynasty; and
III. The Colonial possessions of China, in Mongolia, Soungaria, and East Turkestan, to which may be added Thibet, and the several tribes bordering on Szechuen and Kansuh.
China Proper is the largest, and in every respect the most important of these three divisions. Its name China, used among foreigners, seems derived from Tsin, the name borne by the first dynasty that obtained universal dominion over the various kingdoms of which China was formerly composed. It was, probably, when Tonquin, Cochinchina, and the neighbouring countries were subdued, and forcibly colonized, by the arms of this dynasty, that the name was spread throughout the Indo-chinese nations, and thence found its way over India and Persia, to the countries of the west. This supposition, respecting the derivation of the name China, is rendered more probable, from the fact that, while, from time immemorial, the country has been called Chung-kwo, 'the middle country,' it has also received, under each succeeding age, the name of the dynasty then reigning. And, though among the Chinese the name of Tsin has not, like the more glorious and less tainted names of Han and Tang, been adopted by the people as their own perpetual designation; yet, having once obtained circulation among the surrounding countries, by the splendid victories of its founder, it would not, with them, be so readily lost as China.
China is situated between 18 and 41 degrees N. lat., and between about 98 and 123 degrees lon. E. from Greenwich. Its estimated extent is about 1,298,000 squares miles, while the estimate for the whole Empire is 3,010,400, or something more than the total extent of Europe. The northern boundary of China is the Great Wall, by which it is separated, on that side from the desert lands of the Mongol tribes, and from the scarcely less dreary country of the Mantchous; on the east, the gulf of Pechelee, (called in Chinese Puh-hae), the Eastern ocean, and the Formosa channel wash the rocky coast, and receive the waters of several large rivers; on the south, the China sea is thickly studded with barren islands, the resort of desperate pirates; and on the west, several barbarous frontier tribes stand between the ancient Empires of China and Thibet; while the south-western
