THE MANGHURIAN FRONTIER. 303 



which we crossed is fitted with triple - expansion en- 

 gines of 176 effective horse-power; but as a result of 

 the feverish haste with which Russia hurried on her 

 arrangements for transporting troops to Manchuria 

 in 1900, the boilers were not properly lined, and 

 are now in a precarious condition, one of them being 

 actually out of work. The speed attained averages 

 about 10 knots, and at 7.45 p.m., four hours after 

 starting, we reached Missovaiya, the present starting- 

 point of the Trans-Baikal line. 



Here we found a train awaiting us, and for the next 

 twenty -eight hours were borne through the wooded 

 slopes of Trans-Baikalia to Chita. Beyond Chita the 

 line continues to Stretensk on the upper reaches of the 

 Amur ; but at the junction of Karimskaia we turned 

 south across a hungry-looking steppe beyond the forest 

 zone to the little station which stands on the frontier of 

 the most northern dependency of China, and bears the 

 name of the country to which it gives access — Man- 

 churia. It was dark when we drew up alongside of the 

 platform of the frontier station, but there was a sug- 

 gestive air of activity about our surroundings. A 

 dozen instruments clicked noisily from the brightly lit 

 telegraph -office, large red lights moving to and fro in 

 the darkness outside suggested the active movement of 

 rolling-stock, while the sound of a measured tread up 

 and down where trains stood in the sidings, spoke un- 

 mistakably of the presence of troops. Troops there 

 were, trains full of them, forty men crowded into each 

 of the big, red, covered-in goods waggons of which they 

 were composed. Eastward bound ? No doubt, but a 

 zealous sentry peremptorily ordered off a too inquisitive 

 passenger, and their destination remained a mystery. 



When daylight broke we were travelling through a 

 mountainous country, and later on climbed to the summit 



