4б ARRIVAL AT РЕК IXC. 



town of Nan-kail, i,ooo feet below Chadau, from 

 which it is only fifteen miles distant. 



Thus the entire width of the border of the pla- 

 teau, from the summit of the descent above Kalgan 

 to the entrance into the plain of Peking at Nan-kau, 

 is about 130 miles. Towards the west it probably 

 widens, dividing into a number of parallel chains, 

 abuttmg on the northern bend of the Hoang-ho, 

 while to the east the distinct ranges unite in one 

 broad belt of mountains, which continues to the Gulf 

 of Pechihli in the Yellow Sea. 



Peking^ is only one day's journey, i.e. about 

 35 miles, from Nan-kau. The country is a plain, 

 hardly above the sea level, wdth an alluvial soil, con- 

 sisting of clay and sand, highly cultivated in all parts. 

 The frequent villages, groves of cypress, tree-j'uniper, 

 pine, poplar, and other trees marking the burial- 

 places, lend variety and beauty to the landscape. 

 The climate is warm ; at a season when in Russia 

 severe frosts are prevalent, the thermometer here at 

 noon rises many degrees above freezing point in the 

 shade. Snow is rare ; if it fall occasionally at night, 

 it generally thaws the next day. Wintering birds 

 abound, and we saw thrushes, mountain finches, 

 greenfinches, bustard, rooks, kites, pigeons, and wild 

 ducks. 



Nearer to Peking the population is so dense that 

 villages grow into towns, through which the tra- 

 veller is unconsciously approaching the wall of the 

 city, until at last he finds himself to have entered 

 tlie far-famed capital of the East. 



' Pckincj is onlv 120 feet above the sea level. 



