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formed some of the Company, but was assured that such was not the case. the difficulties the Chinese have in these matters I venture to think that the money Knowing behind the Company is provided by the Russo-Chinese Bank, who have also probably bought off the Bogdo's opposition, and that it is the knowledge of this which is the real cause of the Amban's opposition.
The educational wave which is spreading over China has reached Kalgan, and at one time the services of a Japanese were engaged as foreign professor; they were not, however, satisfactory and were dispensed with. The Chinese then applied to the Protestant ministers for lectures, but these could not see their way to acceding to the request.
Less snow falls in winter than in Peking; this season lasts, however, considerably longer than in the capital,
The main street of the Shangpu (upper citadal) is a torrent bed which is dry for the greater part of the year. It is dotted with Chinese booths selling goods of every kind. In summer the street is liable to inundations, and many lives are lost annually, despite of which the foolish Chinese continue to make use of the street for their shops. These inundations, which occur sometimes in the finest and driest season, take the form of a wave as much as 10 feet high, which dashes down without any warning, sweeping away everything in its path. This inundation is due to the nature of the country between Kalgan and the Mongolian platean; Mr. Campbell has described the nature of this so accurately that I beg to quote an extract from his Report:
"To the Kalgan gap the waters draining from some 2,000 square miles of the Mongol escarpment converge, and the quantities of eroded rocks and boulders cumbering the depths of the valley, and the bed of the Tung chiaoho suggest torrents of magnitude. Two ravines descend the heights and join at the gap
the smaller ravines and depressions run into these
two, and they in turn have their branches and so on until the watershed is reached in minute folds and cuttings. The deciding rim averages 4,800 feet above the sea and Kalgan is 2,700 feet, but the distance from the rim in places is scarcely over 12 miles, and whenever a monsoon thunderstorm bursts over the ramification of ravines the floods descend too rapidly for the capacity of the exit, and the waters are backed up at the gap."
April 11-Although the journey to Kweihuacheng from Kalgan only takes from six to seven days by the route outside the Great Wall as compared with eight by that to the south of the wall, I decided to travel by the latter, thereby being enabled to visit the large cities of North Shausi.
We left Kalgan by the great high road of North Shansi, and kept in a south- westerly direction down to the valley of the Yangho and up on to rising ground on the other side. The country is dry, bleak, and dusty. We passed plenty of traffic all day long, carts, mules, and donkeys all bringing goods to the great distributing centre of Kalgan. Many Mongols overtook us during the day, riding rapidly to the Wutaishan. Soon after noon we halted at Hochiatun, having had to climb for an hour through loess country and low foot hills to the mountains. Continuing up the well- watered valley of a tributary of the Yangho, the mountains on either hand are bleak and bare, and cultivation and trees are confined to the plain. In many places on the stream there were stretches of ice a foot or so in thickness. From time to time along the valley numerous well kept temples, nestling on seemingly inaccessible crags, testified to the piety or fear of past and present generations of eredulous country folk. We slept the night at Chin Hwainan.
April 12.--An interesting feature of this village is a large and very ancient willow tree in the main street, which stretches one arm across the road; this tree is covered with red paper decorations and inscriptions, and at its foot an ignorant peasantry have erected an altar, at which joss sticks are burnt daily before carts start on a journey, and in front of which the peasants kowtow. It is an interesting relic of tree worship, of which I have already seen one other example on the southern descent from the Wutaishan.
A good road through loess defiles and across open country brought us to Hwaian, a small district town surrounded by a high wall. The town looks busy, thriving, and well-to-do, but is considerably smaller inside than its length of wall would lead one to expect from the outside. Like so many walled cities in China, the founders made provision for an expansion which time has not justified. We arrived at Hwaian in time for a large funeral, which was accompanied by the usual scattering of paper cash, models of the deceased's house, pony, chair, and by the wailing hired mourners, and banging of cymbals and letting off of fire crackers. The coffin was followed by a cart full of women of the house howling noisily; all of which, as the tree worship this
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morning, caused my boy, a 4 years' convert to Christianity, to express his wrath. Personally I agreed with Emerson that I was glad the pagan idols died hard. On leaving Hwaian we overtook a line of over 200 carts, each drawn by one mule, carrying tea from Kalgan to Kweihuacheng; this and the fact that we passed to-day many mules and camels laden with wool and tobacco show that there is a steady flow of traffic along this difficult road, and points to the real need of a railway. The road was good to-day for the most part, but muddy and spongy in places; this resulted in our coming badly to grief in one place, the cart getting stuck in the mud at a very dangerous angle and the front mule aggravating the difficulty by pulling too sharply and breaking a shaft rope. This was serious, as the process of refitting the rope necessitated the carter crawling underneath the cart like a chauffeur to a motor car, and the cart was in thick greasy mud; it was unpleasant for the carter. A great deal of the road was in the loess country, and some of the ravines were very beautiful, though, as the road was usually too narrow to permit of two carts passing, disagreeable incidents occurred From Hwaian we ascended the Tsebi örr ling Pass, and then descended through loess to the quite small walled district town of Tientschönn on the Nan Yaugho valley. A Swedish missionary affiliated to the China Inland Mission is stationed here. The valley is well watered, fertile, and well cultivated with a certain amount of timber. A lieutenant and thirty soldiers are stationed here from head-quarters at Tatungfu. Late in the evening the officer called, asked to see my passport, and insisted on providing an escort for the morrow. At Tientschön carters have to change the width of their wheels for continuing the journey into Shansi; the roads in this latter province differing from the width of those in Chibli, or rather the width of the ruts being different, and no self-respecting Chinese cart can travel except in the recognized ruts. The width of the cart roads in Chihli and Shansi Provinces is 3 ft. 6 in. and 4 ft. 7 in. respectively, while it is interesting to note that the width of the road in Shensi differs yet again, and is 4 ft. 2 in.; the method of changing the width is to remove the wooden pole connecting the wheels and replace it by another of the standard width; the Chihli pole is kept at the inn until the return journey; no expense is involved in exchanging the poles beyond a small sum for the labour of removing and refitting the wheels.
April 13.-Three soldiers arrived early to act as escort, but contented themselves with seeing us out of the town. We drifted over the plain to the west, the road being good except where the river or any small tributaries had to be crossed, when the ground was almost impassable, and great détours had to be made to avoid morasses; the carts were, however, once so badly bogged that nothing but spades and poles as levers could extricate them. After passing Errshib li po we kept along the right bank of the Nanyangho ascending steadily, but almost imperceptibly, to Yangkau another small district town with good wails. The Great Wall of China could here be seen a couple of miles away to our right, not as usual on the top of the mountains, but more than half- way down the ridge. As far as could be seen, the wall here is in excellent condition. There is a Roman Catholic mission-station at Yangkan, but it has a native and no European superintendent. Steadily rising to cross the ridge which serves to part the upper waters of the Nanyangho and the Sangkanho, we pushed on in a south-western direction to Wangkwantun through a well-timbered country.
April 14-Ascending gradually to slightly beyond Tsulo we descended by a good, easy road into the Tatungfu basin and the Sangkanho system, and crossing the Yubo by a bridge half a-mile from Tatungfu, reached a good inn outside the east gate before sunset. During the last 2 miles many Mongols passed us singly and in on camels or on ponies, all riding hard to the Wutaishan, some three days' distance groups to the south to bow the knee to their spiritual head, the Dalai Lama, now in residence there. Some were in charge of caravans laden with presents for his Holiness. The Mongols are a great feature of Tatungfu, to the inhabitants of which they are by no means strangers, as they come in hordes every year en route to their Mecca. In spite of their somewhat wretched appearance, they are well-to-do, and as they spend their money freely, chiefly in buying the brass for which Tatungfu is famous, and which costs balf what it does in Peking, they are welcome to the inhabitants. Special inns are set aside for them outside the south gate of the town.
Tatungfu.
Tatungfu is a prefectural town with strong walls in good repair. It is 217 miles from Peking and 240 from Taiyuanfu, the capital of the province. The town is situated between the Yuho and a range of hills. A broad plain stretches to the south. The
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