WITH CHRIST IN INDOCHINA - IndoChina1911

a tremendous responsibility! Only "the Lord working
with them" makes it a reasonable one.
The field lies altogether within the Torrid Zone,
but the temperature varies greatly in different sections.
This is partly because the country is over
I
1,500 miles from north to south, and partly because
I of change in altitude. There are great low-lying
plains along the seacoast, but a range of high mountains
traverses the entire length of the country, and
forms several vast plateaux, one of which is more
than 5,000 feet above sea level. The climate in these
» highlands is temperate. It rarely freezes and is
never more than moderately warm, but on the plains
where the great bulk of the population is found, it
is hot and malarial. In the northern provinces there
is a cool season, but in the south there is little variation
of temperature—not more than twenty-five degrees
throughout the entire year. The noon temperature
of Cochin-China is never less than eighty
degrees in the shade and never more than one hun¬
dred degrees, though, if the thermometer is placed
in the sun, it will often run up to one hundred and
thirty-five degrees or more. The nights are cooler,
and when one becomes accustomed to the heat, the
even temperature is pleasant.
The plains of Tonkin, Annam, Cochin-China, and
Cambodia are covered with rich rice fields. Cochin-
China, in particular, contains much fertile delta land
deposited there by the Mekong River. This great