Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 703

1850.

Travels of M. IIuc.

661

low River, which at this moment had overflowed its banks, and, ac- cording to the missionaries, was like a sea, exceeding in width the reach of vision. It need scarcely be added, that it was with extreme difficulty that the passage was effected.

Our missionaries had now been six weeks on their journey without change of dress, and the sufferings that resulted from the colonization of their garments by vermiu was so great, that they set about purify- ing themselves with mercury. Vermin were, throughout, one of the greatest nuisances met with on their journey. It was impossible to sit down for a moment in a Chinese house or a Tartar hut without carrying away a number of these disgusting insects. The lamas do not kill them, but throw them away to a distance. their numbers in the so-called lamazaries?

What must be

Beyond the Hwang Ho our travelers entered upon the sandy steppes of the country of the Ortus. On these plains were many goat-like deer, hares, gray squirrels, and pheasants, all exceedingly tame. Our poor missionaries were saved from perishing, themselves and cattle, during a terrible storm that raged while they were crossing those plains, by the happy discovery of some artificial grottoes. Passing the lamaza- ry of Rach Tchurin, they arrived at the celebrated salt-lake of Dab- sun-nor, which at this season of the year was less a lake than a vast reservoir of effloresced salt. From this point they took a more souther- ly course, and passing a range of rocky mountains, they once more ferried the Yellow River, and rested for two days at Cha-tui-tse, hav- ing exchanged for a time the desert and nomadic life for such Chinese ease and conforts as were to be obtained at the “Hotel of Justice and Mercy" (Ju-i Ting). A few miles beyond this town they crossed the Great Wall once more. At their next station, Wang-ho Po, they were far from finding the crowd of itinerant cooks, who filled the streets of Cha-tui-tse, bearing ragouts of beef and mutton, vegetables and pastry. There is a difference in different towns in this respect. Here there were nothing but dealers in corn and hay. Here they also joined a Chinese caravan, bound to Ning-hiá. On their way, they passed through, without stopping, at the third-class town of Ping-lo hien. One of the guard-houses, common to the high- ways in China, and to which a room for strangers is always attached,

ed Sararchi

by the Chinese, a ting district in the circuit of Kweist in Chibli. It lies uear the Turkin R., a tributary of the Yellow river, which empties in just where that stream returns south from its long course throngh the Desert Du Haide's maps pluce the town of Chahan at this spot.]