5б THE GREAT WALL. 



farmhouses gladden the sight. Culture and desert, 

 life and death, are placed in such close juxtaposi- 

 tion that the astonished traveller may well doubt his 

 own eyes. 



This contrast in the nature of the country which 

 still forms the boundary between that of roving 

 nomads and that of settled cultivators is defined by 

 the same Great Wall which we had seen at Kalgan 

 and Ku-peh-kau. Hence it continues westwards 

 over the mountains bordering the plateau, passing 

 round the south of Ordos, and abutting on the Ala- 

 shan mountains, which form a natural barrier to the 

 desert. From the southern end of the last-named 

 range, the Great Wall continues along the northern 

 border of the province of Kan-su, past the towns of 

 Lang-chau, Kan-chau, and Suh-chau to the fortress 

 of Kia-yui-kwan. The Great Wall (if we can call it 

 by such a name here) bears no resemblance to the 

 gigantic edifice near Peking. Instead of an immense 

 stone building, all we saw on the border of Kan-su 

 was a mud wall, greatly dilapidated by time. A 

 short distance to the north of it, about three miles 

 and a half apart, stand clay-built watch-towers 

 twenty-one feet high, by about as much square 

 at the base, now entirely deserted, but formerly 

 garrisoned by ten men, whose duty was to signal 

 the approach of the invader. The line of Avatch- 

 towcrs is said to have extended from the province 

 of Hi to Peking itself, and news was conveyed by 

 it with marvellous rapidity. The signal was smoke 

 which rose from the summit of the tower, a fire 



