1. PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF MONGOLIA
The southern border of Western and Central Siberia marches with that of the Outer Chinese Empire along the north-west edge of the Central Asiatic plateau. South of the Siberian-Mongolian frontier with its fur-bearing forests, Alpine meadows and open steppes, lies a stony desert tableland, studded with irregular chains of snowy mountains, the moisture from which drains away into plateau lakes and saline evaporating basins. These physical features stretch far away south-eastward across the Gobi, a stony plateau desert, beyond which hes the Great Wall and Inner China.
All this country is the north-western part of Outer China, sometimes called Outer Mongolia, against which Russia's Empire in Northern Asia abuts. Some idea of its vastness may be gathered from the reflection that the territory outside the Chinese Wall, excluding Manchuria, Tibet and the new province of Sing Kiang, but including Mongolia and the mountainous plateaus between the Siberian and Chinese Altai together with the Gobi desert, covers an area roughly of 1,200,000 square miles. The population, which is very difficult to estimate, is believed by certain Russian authorities to be no more than 2,500,000.
The character of this vast country is uniform and over large areas featureless. Below 7000 feet it is a stony wilderness covered with scanty grass and desert bush, and between this altitude and the snow-line Alpine meadows or patches of larch forest can be found. The whole country is sparsely inhabited
