The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1901-05-03
CLIFF JEWELLERS IN CHINA.
A Strange settlement in Mongolia
Like a Colony of sand
Swallows.

Prof. G. Frederick White. of Uberlin
who started on a tour around the
world several months ago, reached
China just before the Boxers outbreak
had assumed dangerous proportions
and at once made an excursion into
Mongolia, returning later to Tientsin
From there, on June 2, he sent an &C
count of singular and interesting vii
lage of Catholic cliff jewellers which he
visited in Mongolia, says the Spring
field Republican. 1t is quite probable
that the native Christians he describe:
have since been massacred. Prof. White
prefaces the description of the village
with few brief paragraphs about tn,
curious nature of the territory in which
it is situated:
THE eastern border of Mongolia
and the northeastern part of China are
largely covered with los Qoess), one
OF the most interesting and puzzling o,
all the geological deposits. Its German
name comes from the valley of the
Kline, where loess is found in consid
cradle quantities. The inha bitants
the Mississippi and Missouri valleys
the United States are familiar with tn.
deposit in the bluffs at Vicksburg
Kansas City, Omaha and Sioux City
During the siege of Vicksburg the PEG
pie took refuge in the spacious room.
dug out in the deposit at considerable
depth below the surface. At numerous
places along the Missouri river il
stands in perpendicular exposures NOR,
than hundred feet high, and city
streets are cut through its long, per
pendicular sides, which stand like E
wall for many years. When section
breaks off from the cliff it always leave.
a perpendicular face.
"Yet the deposit is so soft that its
surface can be readily cultivated and it
can be handled with shovel at any
depth. The material principally con
sists of extremely fine sand. with lit
tie lime intimately mixed with it. II
is so porous that the rain which falls
upon the surface passes entirely
through the deposit, preventing the
formation of springs of water until an
lmpervious stratum is reached under
meath it all. 1t endures drought better
than any other soil.
The most extensive development OF
the loess anywhere in the world is in
Mongolia in an elevated region from
5000 to $500 feet above the sea, but ii
has been croded by water during long
geological ages into very uneven sur.
face, with numerous narrow valleys
from 1000 feet to 1900 feet deep, with
lnnumerable tributary gullies coming
down the sides of the intervening
ridges. Many isolated peaks also rise
TO an absolute height of from 5000 feet
to 1000 feet above sea level. Into this
rugged region has drifted during re
cent epoch an immense amount of fine
dust which constitutes the loess, That
it has been blown in by the winds is
evident from the positions in which il
lies. 1t appears almost exactly like
series of immense snowdrifts that
have accumulated behind the barriers
which have caused lulls in the wind
permitting the suspended particles to
settle in protected places, while it has
been swept bare from the exposed po-
sitions.
"These deposits of loess are specially
valuable because of their fertility.
But in northern China it is of especial
interest in furnishing cheap, comfort.
able and salubrious dwelling places for
multitudes of people. In recent ex.
cursion through the eastern part OF
Mongolia, outside the great Chinese
wall, in the vicinity of the famous city
of Kolgan, l saw large number of such
villages excavated in the drifts of loess
hanging on the sides of the mountains.
In walking over the erased surface
1T was no uncommon thing to stumble
against chimney protruding from a
habitation below. From distance the
side of the hill looked like an exposed
bank pierced with innumerable swal.
lows nests. The interior of the houses
are clean and comfortable. When the
walls have been moistened and
smoothed over with trowel they have
hard finish which does not crumble
off. The rooms are uniformly dry and
are warm in winter and cool in sum-
mer. On the sloping back of tn hill
several stories of such houses are often
seen above and slightly back of each
other, the roof of one being the first
dooryard of the house above it,"