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ASIA 297 ASIA Manchuria. Earthquakes are frequent, especially in Armenia, Turkestan, and around Lake Baikal. Minerals. — There are gold mines of great wealth in the Urals, the Altai, and eastern Siberia; and auriferous sands are found in Korea, Sumatra, Japan, and in the Caucasus Mountains. Silver is extracted in Siberia; platina, in the Urals; copper, in Japan, India, and Siberia; tin, in Banca; mercury, in Japan. Iron ore is found in nearly all the mountainous regions, especially in Asia Minor, Persia, Turkestan, India, China, Japan, and Siberia; but iron mining is still at a rudimentary stage. Immense coal-beds are spread over China and the islands of the Pacific (Hainan, Japanese Archipelago, Sakhalin), east- ern Siberia, Turkestan, India, Persia, and Asia Minor. They cover no less than 500,000 square miles in China alone; but the extraction of coal is as yet very limited. Graphite of very high quality is found in the Sayans and northern Siberia. The diamonds of India, the sapphires of Ceylon, the rubies of Burma and Turkestan, the topazes, beryls, etc., of the Urals and Nertchinsk, have a wide repute. Layers of rock-salt are widely spread, and still more so the salt lakes and springs. The petroleum wells of the Caspian shores already rival those of the United States. A variety of mineral springs, some of them equal to the best waters of western Europe, are widely spread over Asia. Flora. — There is little difference be- tween the vegetation of the E. of Europe and that of northwestern Asia. Forests cover extensive tracts, and consist of pine, fir, larch, cedar, silver fir, birch, aspen, and poplars. In the region to the E. of the high pla- teau, including China, Manchuria, and Japan, oak reappears. So also the wal- nut, the hazel, the lime tree, and the maple; while several new species of pop- lars, willows, acacias, and many others, make their appearance. The beech is characteristic of the forests of western Asia. Here also are found all the trees of southern Europe. The vine and several of the European fruit trees (pJum, cherry, apricot, pear) are regarded by botanists as belonging originally to this region. The flora of Asia Minor combines those of southern Europe and northern Africa, owing to its evergreen oaks, laurels, olive trees, myrtles, oleanders, and pistachio trees, as also to its variety of bulbous plants. Southern and southeastern Asia, with their numerous islands, display the richest flora. In the neighborhood of the sea-coasts, the tropical vegetation reaches the variety and size of the American. Here the sugar cane, the cotton shrub, and the indigo had their origin. The cocoanut palm and the banyan tree are the most striking feature of the coast vegetation. Ferns reach the size of large trees. The gigantic banyan, the screw pine, the India rubber, and the red cotton trees occur in immense forests; and bamboos grow thick and high. In Borneo, Java, and the islands of the archipelago, the tropical vegetation is like that of India. The sago palm, the bread tree, imported from the South Sea Islands, and the tamarind, also im- ported, are largely cultivated, as also the cocoanut palm and the sugar palm. Orchids appear in their full variety and beauty. The swamps are covered with mangroves or with the nipa or susa palm ; and vanilla, pepper, clove, and nearly all the species are native to this region. Asia has given to Europe a variety of useful plants; among them, wheat, bar- ley, oats, and millet, onions, radishes, peas, beans, spinach, and other vege- tables. Nearly all our fruit trees have the same origin; the apple, pear, plum, cherry, almond, pistachio, and mulberry, the raspberry, and even lucerne, were im- ported from Asia to Europe. Fawia. — The fauna of nearly the whole of continental Asia belongs to one single domain. Animals could easily spread over the plains of Europe and Siberia on the one side, and on the other along the high plateau which stretches from Tibet to the land of the Tchuktchis. This wide region can be easily subdivided into the Arctic region, the Boreal, embracing the lowlands of western Siberia ; the Daurian, in the northern parts of the great plateau; and the central Asian. The fauna of Sibei'ia is much like that of eastern Europe. It is the true habitat of all fur-bearing animals, as the bear, wolf, fox, sable, ermine, otter, beaver, common weasel and squirrel; also the hare, wild boar, the stag, the reindeer, and the elk, all belonging to the European faunus, with the addition of several species common to the Arctic fauna. The central Asian plateau has a fauna of its own. We find there the wild an- cestors of several of our domestic ani- mals, viz., the wild horse, discovered by Przewalski (Prejevalsky) in the Ala- shan Mountains, the wild camel and donkey, and the capra segargus, from which our common goat is descended. The yak, several species of antelopes, and the roebuck are characteristic of the central Asian fauna; so also are the huge sheep, now disappearing, which