FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



solitudes. It was at 9,750 feet that a dozen bodies were dis- 

 covered, crouched, locked together for a long - lost warmth, and 

 frozen stiff Yet at this height the effects of mountain atmosphere 

 are not so generally fatal. 



At a short distance east of the town the margin of the lake 

 Er-hai extends from north-north-west to south-east ; and the 

 plain which fringes it and environs Tali strikes the base of the 

 Tsang-Chang mountains, and spreads over an area of a dozen 

 leagues. Nothing can adequately convey a sense of its fertility. 

 Between the three hundred and seventy-five villages it contains 

 there is not a rood of fallow ground, and every field yields two 

 harvests a year. The only rest the soil gets is in a change 

 of crops. The chief products are corn, maize, opium, rice, and 

 buckwheat. No tax burdens the farmer, and quite a small plot 

 belonging to the mission brings in fifty taels per annum. 



At the two extremities of the lake the little towns of Chan- 

 kouan and Chia-kouan (upper and lower gate) mark the limits 

 of the plain. With a few slight military works on the north and 

 south, — its natural defences suffice for the east and west, — the 

 place might be held for a long time against an enemy from 

 without, especially as the besieged would have ample and 

 practically inexhaustible food supplies at their very gates. From 

 which it may be seen, as before indicated, that the triumph of 

 the Imperial troops in 1S71 was due to the treachery instilled 

 among the lieutenants of the Sultan rather than to force or 

 famine. 



One afternoon of our stay I escaped from the mission and 

 turned my mule down towards the lake. It was about three- 

 quarters of an hour's ride through cultivated fields to the shore, 

 bordered with trees and villages. Over the tranquil surface of 



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