38 THE GREAT WALE 



SO that he returns home in spring nearly empty- 

 handed.^ 



The land transport is so expensive that the price 

 of brick-tea, which is exclusively consumed by the 

 Mongols and inhabitants of Siberia, is increased by 

 three times the cost of its production. A caravan 

 takes from thirty to forty days on the road from 

 Kalgan to Kiakhta, according to agreement with 

 the contractor. 



The tea chests are first covered with thick 

 woollen cloths, wdiich are afterwards stripped off, 

 and the boxes sewn up in undressed hides, and des- 

 patched to European Russia, on carts or on sledges, 

 according to the season of the year. Kalgan, as we 

 have said, commands one of the passes through the 

 Great Wall, which we beheld for the first time. 

 It is built of large stones, cemented together with 

 mortar. The wall itself is tapering, 21 feet high, 

 and about 28 feet wide at the foundation. At the 

 most important points, less than a mile apart, square 

 towers are erected, built of bricks laid in mortar, 

 as headers and stretchers. The size of the towers 

 varies considerably, the largest measuring 42 feet on 

 each side at the base, and the same in height. 



The wall winds over the crest of the dividing 

 range, crossing the valleys at right angles, and block- 

 ing them with fortifications. At such places alone 

 could this barrier be of any advantage for defensive 



^ See in Hue a clever description of the way in which the Mongol 

 is swindled. Hue's ' Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet, 

 et la Chine,' vol. i. 173.— Y.- 



