Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 93 (Color Image)

0093	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. Iv.] AN INVIGORATING CLIMATE. 67

robust, and as the rainfall is adequate and

the soil unsurpassed in fertility, the crops in

the cultivated plains, and the forests in more

mountainous parts are magnificent. Moreover,

Manchuria is spared the one great drawback

to most countries in which the winter tempera-

ture falls as low as 300 or 400 below zero

Fahrenheit. The snow-fall is not so heavy

as to prevent traffic, and the winter season is

in fact the time when the greater part of the

traffic is carried on, for then the swamps are

frozen, the muddy tracks of summer are con-

verted into hard, firm roads, and carts can

trundle over them as on the best macadam.

And if crops are prevented from maturing for

half the year they are at any rate all the fuller

on that account when they do ripen. The

moisture is retained in the ground, and forms

a sort of reservoir to moisten the roots, while

the warm sunshine of the spring and early

summer acts on the upper growth.

The configuration of the country is no less

favourable to development than the climate.

The Russians have already cut off from Man-

churia its northern coastline which includes the

valuable port of Vladivostok and the important

F 2

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