The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-15 00:00:00

PEKIN .

"Russia," says the Moniteur, "has maintained,
during the last century, a convent and a school at
Pekin, which have been the nursery of her inter-
preters in the Chinese and Mantchou languages.
Every ten yearn the personnel of these two establish-
ments is. renewed, and a fresh batch of monks and
pupils are sent off from St. Petersburgh. The expedi-
tion, under the direction of an officer, crosses Mon-
golia and proceeds beyond the great wall. During
their stay in Pekin, the Russians are at liberty to
walk through the city and visit everything, without
exciting the uneasiness or jealousy of the Government.
An officer of that nation, M. Kovenko, a major in the
corps of Mining Engineers, has just published, in the
Annu2ire des Mines de Russie, the following sketch
of the environs of Pekin. That capital is situate in a
plain, bounded on the north-west by a chain of moun-
tains, which the Chinese divide into northern and
western, from their Situation relative to that city.
" The northern mountains extend within a day's
i journey from Pekin, or about ten French leagues. In
summer the road is very picturesque, the country
being highly cultivated. The yellow millet is, in the
opinion of the Chinese peasantry, the most precious
of all plants. Its seed constitutes their principal
food, the stock. serves as fodder for the cattle, or a
substitute for hay, which they never think of reaping
in that country. The straw• of another species of
millet, which grows to a height of 15 feei:, is employed
to make garden fences, and is also used for fuel.
" Near the northern mountains are springs, the
temperature of which exceeds 45 degrees. The
water is conveyed through tubes into bathing places
cut in the calcareous rocks, and lined with sheets of
lead. Early in springy numbers repair to these baths,
either on account of ill hellth or for the sake of
amusement. The Imperial fatnily has a palace there,
and in the neighbourhood are several temples, in
which the weary traveller may seek shelter. The
hospitality of the priests of Khesan andDao, however,
is not gratuitous. M. Kovenko states that they charge
18 rubles or 20 francs for a few hours' repose, and
that they exact 25 rubles for one day. This will
give an idea of the cost attending the shortest excur-
sions to the environs of Pekin. The valleys of those
mountains abound in fruit trees, willows, pine trees,
juniper trees, cypresses, but the ground is nowhere
thickly wooded.
"The western mountains contain valuable coal
mines. The coal, is so abundant that rich layers are
to be met with every half league. The Chinese, how-
over, are so obstinate and so backward in the art of
mining, that the country derives no advantage from
its mineral wealth. Machinery being altogether un-
known, the people have not even the idea ofusing pumps
when the works are inundated. When theground admits,
they open galleries for the water to flow out, and they
abandon the mine when it is ent;)-ely under water.
Their system of ventilation consists in opening holes
at certain distances, above which are placed wheels
with paddles, which are turned by men. But those
wheels, although constantly in motion, produce little
air. The pickaxe, wedge, and hammer, are the only
tools they use ; they
clear the soil IN i ill the pickaxe,
and drive the wedge into the coal with the hammer,
and thus contrive to extract pieces weighing from 30
to 40 kilogrammes. Coal sells at a very low price in
the capital of China. It is burnt in bronze vases, used
as stoves, in the spat tment, or its _.eat is distributed
through the houses by tubes fixed in the walls.
"''hose precautions against cold are extremely
lgteh
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themselves from the rigour of the winter, for it often
freezes and snows in their capital. M. Timkowski
saw the thermometer range at 12 degrees below the
freezing point on the 31st of December, 1820."