216 KULJA. 



wilderness and built a new Suidon, where he now 

 reigns sheltered from foreign curiosity. 



The town of Kulja itself affords an unmistakable 

 illustration of the status of the province. Russian 

 reality is there in the shape of a Russian consul and a 

 Cossack escort, a Russian post and telegraph office, and 

 the insurmountable fact that half the inhabitants of 

 the town are Russian subjects, while the dignity and 

 prestige of the Son of Heaven are ostentatiously dis- 

 played in the person of a Taotai or provincial governor, 

 and the whole gamut of minor officials and hangers-on. 



I spent some days in the town of Kulja itself, and 

 had an opportunity of seeing something of the sur- 

 rounding country. The town is situated on the Hi 

 river, which here flows through a broad and fertile val- 

 ley enclosed by parallel ranges of handsome mountains. 

 There is no doubt that these mountains are possessed 

 of considerable mineral wealth. Coal is found not very 

 far off", and is worked, as far as I could gather, in a 

 desultory way by any one who feels inclined to go so far 

 to gather his supply of fuel. I was also told by some 

 of the nomad tribes that they found gold ; but this fact 

 they kept sedulously hidden from the authorities at 

 Kulja, for they said, " if the Chinese knew that there 

 was gold in the mountains, they would make us work it 

 for them, and we should never receive any of the profits 

 for ourselves." As it is, when these nomads are in 

 want of a little money, they send one of their number 

 down to Kulja to dispose of a nugget of gold in the 

 bazaar. If any questions are asked, the individual 

 replies that his father has died and left him a family 

 ornament (the gold) which has been in his family for 

 generations, but which he is obliged to dispose of for 

 want of funds. 



The population in the vicinity of Kulja itself consists 



