Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-08-11

$ NOTHING WHATEVER TO DO
E STORY"
of the far north, and in their blue, TRAN
guar tents seemed to be making the best
OF their long peregrinations.
A TRADE CENTER.
1nfough the Great Wall and the Nam
kau Pass, first crossing the Wall at Kali
gan, is carried all the trade of Central
Asia, and much also that comes by wafer.
way at hrst along the tributaries of the
HWang-ho, is diverted to this route, To
tap such a trade by railway would OBJ
Vlously be a profitable undertaking, and
there is talk of an American line, to reach
from Pekin to Kalgan, along the Pass
and up on the first plateau.
Pekln spreads in it's suburbs far be-
yond the outer walls, in long, unmade
roads of booths and shanties full of
t~ravellng-carts and itinerant vendors Of
tine chow of which hungry drivers are
likely to stand in need. Not far off, along
the main routes of communication, begins
the dotted lines of walled cities, each
garrisoned of old by the scattered divis-
ions of the Manchu army. but now ready
TO admit any enemy through the tumbled
breaches in their ancient defenses.
In the far distance, from the gate Of
Pekin itself, is to be seen the range
VA - ~ lilS llpl WITCH
goes by the name of Nankau, the city
at the entrance to the Pass. Burnt and
blown to a tawny color. in their sharp
ness, their baroness, and their utter
want of human occupation, these noun
tains remind one of the foothills of the
northwest frontier of India by the Khy-
Der and Kohat passes.
Nature could not provide a nation with
a grander barrier to the incursions of the
alien, and, without the vestige of a wall,
a hundred opportunities are given for an
i~mpregnable series of defensive works.
No such road has been made to assist an
invading army as now pierces the Mala-
kand,' and the traditional caravan route
is a mere stony track, winding in and
out. up and down with the ramifications
of the passage. Curses, loud and deep,
in many dialects, accompany the slither-
ing and struggling of countless beasts Of
burden going to and fro. From Nankau
City to the actual wall is, it is computed,
some fifteen miles in distance, and along
the exchanging hill runs the line of tele-
graph posts that crosses the Cobb desert
to the frontier port of Kiakta, and so on
by the Russian line of communications.
AT THE WALL.
About a third of the way up one comes
to a veritahle rock gate, on the sides of
which are mounted two small Joss
houses" where travellers can make their
peace with the gods before they enter on
the perils of the Mongol road. Above
them, on the higher crags, were built
ages ago, the first of the square watch
towers, which stretch in unbroken regu-
larity to the furthest points of the Old
Wall, just as on the borderland of Scot
lame and along the marches of Wales
beacon fires were won't to be carried from
point to point SO as to give warning of
the approach of the foe, and a difficult
task it must have been to force a passage
+ ~, ,,o n, ~, III ara fnrtifnl IaGlsc nvnp a ffa1s
the walls We're surmounted.
Twisting about the hills are other
walled enclosures meant to be used as
auxiliary forts to the main lines. At
last, after many a fancied recognition.
you come in sight of the Great Wall
itself.
For once in a way a world famous Won
der is no disappointment. The dreary
yellow of the eneircling mountains, the
sharp-cut distinction of the country's
face, and the wild aridity of the desert
beyond, all lend enchantment to the view,
the enchantment of the savage tracts
which bred the conquering nations of the
modern world.
! From Mongolia came the Goth and
the Hun. the Tartar and the Turk, in
fact, according to the ethnologist, all the
worlds energy and force must have been
generated upon this barren lakeland.
From the great gate of the Great Wall
you look on to Mongolia, though it is not
SO called until you pass kalgan, and you
do not marvel that the mighty races
Mongolia has bred have the grit and pug.
= nacity driven into their bones.
A troop of English cavalry in line could
pass along its ramparts for the whole OF
it's extent, and one of its bricks weighs
as much as IA pounds. Every hills crest
carries it to it's topmost point. and no
slope is too precipitous for it to descend,
}, Wills to make the permanent way good
: going for men on the march the aeclivi-
!: ties are broken into the steps of an easy
:, staircase. still sound enough for all to
traverse.
Once seen, the Great Wall OF China
can never fade from memory