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to present him with a kodak which he coveted, the mechanism of which I explained to him, I nearly declined to go at all, as his Excellency had sent for my Manchu servant in the early afternoon to have a talk with him, the excuse being that they were compatriots. My servants subsequently told me that his Excellency had offered him a billet in the yamên when he should have left me. He was doubtful whether to accept this or the Ninghsia offer. However, I ignored the breach of etiquette, and went to say good-bye to his Excellency, who was most effusive. He asked my permission to Even give my boy a present of money, and owned to a talk with him "about Peking." if the conversation had been extended to me and my movements, little harm could have been done, as nowhere had I made any secret as to where we had been. My only secrets were the conclusions I had drawn.
September 15.-The hills quite close lay deep in snow as a result of the rain during the last few days. The passes must therefore be closed. The Amban said that he expected the colony would be snowed up for the winter in a fortnight's time. The Amban said that one of the objects of the colony is to civilise the IIassacks, and This will proposes soon to open a school and compel them to learn Chinese. probably be resented by their wild untamable nature. The Amban has just issued orders to the Mongols that corpses are to be decently buried in future--another blow at a cherished custom. The authorities seem to have had a little trouble with the Hassacks on first arrival, but, thanks to the strength of the garrison, all trouble seems to have blown over.
The Amban insisted on coming to see me off, spending an hour with me before I left, chattering on various serious subjects. His Excellency feels the weight of the work, and the slow results rather discourage him. He asked me whether I would come and help him to construct his colony. I rejoined that the Chinese Government did not seem to hold the same views as his Excellency did regarding the participation of foreigners (I did not know at the time of the change of views of the Central Government). His Excellency seemed in such a mood that had the right man been on the spot he could have secured a contract to assist in the development of the colony. But such an appoint- ment should carry with it the right to construct railways to Manas or Guchen for without such lines of communication no colony can develop, much less use the minerals with which the Chinese say the mountains teem, and which they intend to exploit,
And here I would venture to urge the expediency of assisting the Chinese Govern- ment to develop Mongolia and Chinese Turkestan. The essential thing is a trunk line from Kalgau to Ili, branching off at Urumtsi to Kashgar, and with branches northwards, Kuldja to Chuguchak, Manas or Guchen to Altaishan, Guchen to Kobdo, Kobdo to Uliassutai, Kalgan to Urga. The Chinese act towards railways as a child towards toys. They please the Chinese Government, but the latter are unable to make them themselves. The magnitude of a line to Ili will appal them, and they will be frightened even at the idea of a foreigner building it, but would it not be possible to induce the Chinese Government to build a short line from Altaishan to Guchen (to develop the new colony), the line to be continued gradually westwards and eastwards as it was found to be a success, the line being Chinese property and we only leading the money? His Excellency lamented bitterly that there was no telegraph; he said the Chinese Government expected nowadays everything reported, and he had to wait for many months for a reply to his requests.
SECTION VII-SHARASUMÉ TO CHUCUCHAK.
September 15-Leaving in the morning we descended half a-mile to the stream. Here there is a large Chinese farm, established thirty years ago; the people being natives of Lanchow in Kansu. A great deal of opium is smoked here. The soil is black and good, and wheat grows well; every one was busy reaping it before the snow's arrival, Quite a fair amount of land was under cultivation. Crossing the stream, which rushes down several channels 13 feet deep and some 20 yards broad over a bed strewn with boulders, we kept down the valley (the bottom of this is covered with sinall bushes, high grass, wild roses, and scrub of all kinds) for 4 miles and then turned west over low hills. Ascending gradually to an obo at mile 7 we looked down on the vast plain, which we reached in a south-westerly direction 14 miles later. Turning west at milo 114, we reached a small gurgling stream rushing south. Here we changed our direction to the south on finding that the track on which we were would not bring us to Buluntogoi, but would take us round the north and north-west end of the Ulungur Lake. Crossing the plain amid tall grass and fields of wheat and millet, which Hassacks were busy garnering (they were also cutting grass for winter fodder with an
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activity which Mongols would do well to imitate), we ascended a gently sloping ridge, reaching the top at mile 181. We then descended among low broken hills, bleak and waterless, to the plain of the Kilingho, which we reached at mile 23, and across which we marched in a south-westerly direction. At mile 291 we reached the farm of Palugay, the bleakness of the plain being succeeded by 2 miles of low scrub, tamarisk bushes, and small shrubs. At this farm lives a Chinese man from Lanchow. He has been here thirty years, having fled from the terrors of the Mahommedan rebellion in Kansu forty years ago. In return for some service to a lama he was given this land free, and here he has lived since, growing wheat, millet, fruits, and vegetables of all kinds. He has built a large yourt in his yard for any travellers-official or otherwise-- who may pass.
He was most anxious to give the first foreigner he had seen a suitable present, and pressed first a sheep, then a duck, and finally a sweet melon on me.
Melons grow abundantly here. They are yellow fleshed, not, as at Altaishan, green fleshed. For He five years something has been wrong with the ground, and the crops have failed. had thought of going back to Lauchow, but hearing that the Chinese Government meant to establish a colony here (for it is close by this farm that the new Sharasumé is to be built) he decided to remain. Mosquitoes are unusually ferocious in this district.
September 16.-This Chinaman has no need of money; he never sees nor uses silver. If the Mongols want wheat or flour they do work for him and his family. If any eat with him he eats with them at a later date. Leaving southward over the plain we reached the river 2 miles away, and had to wind among the trees and bushes to find the crossing. There are a number of mud cabins and yourts near the stream, and at one of these we picked up a native to show us the way.
Kilingho (or Kran, as is marked on Russian maps) is the same stream as flows past the Sharasumé settlement. It here flows east to west to join the Irtish. The river is only a foot deep here and the water clear; it flows swiftly over a stony bed and between high tree-covered banks. The belt of trees is, however, narrow, and we were out of it almost at once on the other side. The guide then put us on to a camel track, and left us to continue southwards. As the track, however, soon came to an end we had to travel entirely by the compass.
Rising about 100 feet above the river we now kept over the most dreary and bleakest of deserts, compared to which the Gobi was delightful to the eye. The ground was covered with small stones, like a river bed from which the water has receded, and the only traces of vegetation were a few brown weeds. It was a dead flat, with not even an undulation to be seen for many miles. After 4 miles of this we dropped suddenly into the valley of the Irtish ho, and kept over the same kind of ground in a southward direction to mile 11. Here we entered on a country of small hillocks lightly covered with poor tamarisk bushes. At mile 18% we reached the belt of trees which mark the course of the Irtish. From a Hassack tent we then picked up a guide who showed us the track, which wound for another mile through tall trees and bushes to the banks of the stream at 14 miles from the River Kran. Buluntogoi being still too far away to reach comfortably in the same march, and there being no water between this and there, we halted on the banks for the night at the hut of the ferryman, a Mongol of Ulianghai. The banks are high, and the stream some 70 yards broad and exceedingly swift; the greatest depth here seemed to be 34 feet. The boats used are small dug-outs, resembling the Ceylon katamaran, dug out of the whole tree-trunk ; they are used by two being lashed together at bow and stern, thus presenting a firmer resistance to the current. The next nearest ferry down stream is three days' distance away by camel and two by horse. Fish, a coarse species, are plentiful in the river; they are speared by the natives in winter. The ferryman gets 5 taels (15s,) a-month from the Government of Altaishan, and is bound to take Government inessengers and all travellers across the stream; bis work must be light.
September 17.-The camels and ponies forded the stream slightly above the ferry. We in the dug-out drifted down the stream for 250 yards before reaching the landing place on the opposite bank. Getting clear of the bushes on the other shore (the belt is only some 100 yards wide at this point), we turned south-west over bleak ground, and ascending some 30 feet out of the valley, kept in a southerly direction over level ground of the same dreary nature as between the Kran and the Irtish. There was not a sign of any living creature on this waste of small stones and sparse brown weeds except for the ubiquitous lizard. At mile 10 we dropped 30 feet into a dry lake or river bed running east and west, à perte de vue on either hand, 1 miles across this we dropped another 12 feet or so, and for another 13 miles kept over ground relieved by small tamarisks and
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