fifty-two Englands, or nearly eight provinces the size of British
Columbia, or twenty-four countries as large as Italy. The population
is quite dense in the oases and along the rivers, but in other parts
widely scattered, so that the numbers are not nearly so great as in
the countries with which its geographical area has been compared.
There are, however, 23,368,000 people. We have here a bewildering
array of races and languages.

The most important of these lands are Afghanistan, Chinese Turkestan,
Tibet, and Russian Turkestan. The entire region is overwhelmed by the
intellectual stagnation and moral rottenness of Mohammendanism, except
Tibet, which is the stronghold of Lamaism, a corrupt form of Buddhism.

In all this region there are only three mission stations, and not a
physician or hospital anywhere. It is 2,000 miles from the Moravian
station at Leh to the first outpost of the China Inland Mission in
China. From the last station of the Church Missionary Society in North
India it is 1,000 miles northward to the next missionary outpost.

In this territory there are some cities of considerable size like
Bokhara, which has 10,000 students and 364 mosques, but no Christian
church, and Tashkend with a population of more than 155,000. There are a
dozen or more cities with populations reaching from 25,000 to 200,000.

Afghanistan is unoccupied by Christian missions. Fanaticism and hatred
of Christ hold sway everywhere. According to Dr. S. M. Zwemer, 94 per
cent. of the people are illiterate. Mohammed has swept the field. Only
fearless workers can win this land.

Tibet is still the Gibraltar of the non-Christian world, and although
a line of missionary outposts is drawn around it, in one place there
is a gap of 1,500 miles between stations.

=3. India.=--India is the burning heart of Asia. It has a genius for
religion unsurpassed in the world.

India has been called the Mother of Religions. Of the four great
faiths which were born in Asia, two came from India.

India is a menagerie of races and languages. According to the
Edinburgh Conference Report there are 147 languages in India. Some of
these are spoken by only a few people, but there are ten languages,
each of which is spoken by ten millions or more.

The census of 1911 gives the population of the country as 315,132,537.
Of every hundred people in the world eighteen live in this one land.
Among them there are two hundred and seventeen millions of Hindus,
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