fox, twenty-seven or more species of ruminants,
and numerous species of rodents. The rhinoceros, elephant, and tapir
still exist in Yuennan. The domestic animals include the camel and the
water-buffalo. There are about 700 species of birds, and innumerable
species of fishes and insects.

Sociological Environment

On their arrival in what is now known as China the Chinese, as already
noted, fought with the aboriginal tribes. The latter were exterminated,
absorbed, or driven south with the spread of Chinese rule. The Chinese
"picked out the eyes of the land," and consequently the non-Chinese
tribes now live in the unhealthy forests or marshes of the south,
or in mountain regions difficult of access, some even in trees (a
voluntary, not compulsory promotion), though several, such as the Dog
Jung in Fukien, retain settlements like islands among the ruling race.

In the third century B.C. began the hostile relations of the Chinese
with the northern nomads, which continued throughout the greater
part of their history. During the first six centuries A.D. there was
intercourse with Rome, Parthia, Turkey, Mesopotamia, Ceylon, India,
and Indo-China, and in the seventh century with the Arabs. Europe
was brought within the sociological environment by Christian
travellers. From the tenth to the thirteenth century the north
was occupied by Kitans and Nuechens, and the whole Empire was under
Mongol sway for eighty-eight years in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. Relations of a commercial and religious nature were held
with neighbours during the following four hundred years. Regular
diplomatic intercourse with Western nations was established as a result
of a series of wars in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Until
recently the nation held aloof from alliances and was generally averse
to foreign intercourse. From 1537 onward, as a sequel of war or treaty,
concessions, settlements, etc., were obtained by foreign Powers. China
has now lost some of her border countries and large adjacent islands,
the military and commercial pressure of Western nations and Japan
having taken the place of the military pressure of the Tartars already
referred to. The great problem for her, an agricultural nation, is
how to find means and the military spirit to maintain her integrity,
the further violation of which could not but be regarded by the student
of sociological history as a great tragedy and a world-wide calamity.

Physical, Em