Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1905-06-30
The Special Correspondent
Chapter XVIII.

The country is fertile and well culti-
vated, growing wheat, maize, rice, bar
ley and flax, in its eastern districts. Ev-
erywhere are great masses of trees, will
lows, mulberries, poplars. AS far as the
eye can reach are fields under cultivation,
irrigated by numerous canals, also green
fields, in which are focks of sheep, a
country half Normandy, half Provence,
were it not for the mountains of Pamir
on the horizon. But this portion Of Kach-
garia was terribly ravaged by war when
Its people were struggling for independ-
ence. The land flowed with blood, and
along by the railroad the ground is dot
tide with tumuli beneath which are
buried the victims of their patriotism.
But / did not come to Central Asia to
travel as if l were in France. Novelty!
Noveltyl The unforeseen! The appall-
ing!
1t was without the shadow Of an ac-
cident, and after a particularly fine run,
that we entered Yarkand Station at four
o'clock in the afternoon.
A few Chinese passengers alighted at
Yarkand, and gave place to others exact
ly like them-among others score or
coolies-and we started again at 8
o'clock in the evening. During the night
we ran the three hundred and fifty kilo-
meters which separate Yarkand from
Kothan.
A visit l paid to the front van showed
me that the box was still in the same
place. A certain snoring proved that
Kinko was inside as usual, and sleeping
peacefully. did not care to wake him,
and 1 left him to dream of his adorable
Roumanian.
In the morning Popof told me that the
train, which was now travelling about as
fast as an omnibus, had passed Khar-
galik, the junction for the Kilian and
Tong branches. The night had been
cold, for we are still at an altitude of
1900 meters. Leaving Guma Station, the
line runs due east and west, following
the thirty-seventh parallel, the same
which traverses it in Europe, Seville,
Syracuse and Athens.
We sighted only one stream Of impor-
tance, the Karakash, on which appeared
q few drifting RATS, and files of horses
and asses at the fords between the pebbly
banks. The railroad crosses it about a
hundred kilometers from Khotan, where
we arrived at o'clock in the morning
Two hours to stop, and as the towr
may give me a foretaste of the cities o1
China, resolve to take run through 1t
As we were about to board the cal
again, 1 saw Popof running toward me
shouting:
Monsieur Bombarnac!'
"What is the matter, PopofT
"A telegraph messenger asked me i
there was any one belonging to thu
Twentieth Century on the train"
"a telegraph messenger
"Yes, and on my replying in the af
frnative,| he gave me this telegram fo
for you''
"Give it me! give it me!'
l seize the telegram, which has bee
waiting for me some days. Is it a repl
to my wire sent from Merv, relative t
the mandarin Yen Lou?
1 open it. read it, and it falls fro1
my hand. This is what it said:
"Claudius Bombarnac, Correspondent
Twentieth Century, Khotan, Chimes
Turkestan:
'It is not the corpse of mandari
that the train is taking to Pekin, br
the imperial treasure, value fifteen mil
ions, sent from Persia to China, as al
nounced in the Paris newspapers eigf
days ago; endeayor to be better informe
for the future