CO129-269 - Governor Sir Robinson & Public Offices - 1895 [12] — Page 500

and the troops of 6th Division left in 20 ships on 22nd

The 2nd Division aisembarked on 10th, 21st and

January.

22nd.

The 6th Division on 23rd and 24th.

Headquarters

on the 25th. The weather was fine, and though there was a cola wind blowing from the N.West, the landing place was quite shelterau.

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The roads towards Wei hai wei are mere tracks, that along the sea coast is fairly leval, but the more southern one leads up and down over the lower spurs of the range of hills to the south, In many places the roeds were very slippery with ice, and one had to move along very carefully and slowly. An attempt had been made to rough the ponies' shoes, but the iron was too soft to be of any good, and wore completely away in a day's rids.

The cola North Weat wind and occasional snow- storms made the march very unpleasant at times.

Slight skirmishes occurred on the 24th, 25th and 27th January, but the Chinese made no real resistance,

and

The Chinese-

495

and there were hardly any casualties.

force was said to be 1500 strong, and they attacked the

advanced troops covering the working parties who were

engaged in repairing the road. The villages in this

part of the country are all small, the houses are well

built, generally with stone walls and thatched roofs, in

regular rows, but they are if possible more filthy inside

and out than those about Port Arthur and Talienwan.

There are plenty of trees in the valleys, round the

villages, and on some of the hill slopes, but they are

#11 small. It looks as though an attempt had been made

to replant the country in places as there are young trees

growing in regular rows. Most of the houses have stores

of grain millet, Indian corn, Bajera, small beans, etc,

and outside are stacks of straw and hay and dried branches

with the leaves on for fuel. There are also plenty of

sweet potatoes, which are sometimes inside the houses

and sometimes buried in earth mounds outside, and wo

have also found a sort of turnip and pumpkin and onion

which make good additions to our rice and baef. The

troops are able to get fresh beef about twice a week at

presant. The water seems to be good where it is not

polluted, but Japanese sanitary notions are beneath con-

tempt, only equalled for badness, I should think, by the

Chinese.

The