430 SOUTHERN DZUNGARIA 



floods of fanatics, — over these two luxuriant valleys, with 

 disastrous results to tens of thousands of Celestials. 

 No sooner, however, do the floods recede, or are the 

 insurrections quelled, than the Chinese swarm again 

 into the valleys, where they live, as it were, on the slopes 

 of a volcano. No other fact shows so well the remarkable 

 tenacity of the race. The Yellow River overflows its 

 banks and drowns millions of human beings, but im- 

 mediately the dykes are rebuilt the Chinese go back 

 to cultivate the soil, heedless of the future, until once 

 again catastrophe bursts upon them. So with the Hi 

 Valley ; its fertility attracts them to such a degree 

 that they shut their eyes to the possibility of annihila- 

 tion. It has been said of the British, that they are 

 like ants : if one finds a good bit of meat, a thousand 

 will follow. I think this applies equally to the Chinese, 

 that slow, persistent race, to whom neither the Hi Valley 

 nor the valley of the Hoang-Ho will ever be lost, — not 

 even in the face of the greatest of calamities. 



The next day we reached Lao-tzao-gou, a small 

 village now, but formerly one of the six towns of the Hi 

 Valley. The old walls and parapets, showing its former 

 size and ancient importance, were now merely the haunts 

 of owls and foxes, while the rich lands around them 

 awaited the hand of the cultivator. So we passed on, 

 out of the Unhappy Valley, up through the winding 

 Talki Gorge, where the highway first shows any signs 

 of actual road-making. This track alone gives access, 

 to Turkestan from China, and all who come or go must 

 pass by this route ; of necessity, therefore, the road has 

 been built up to some pretension of a highway. 



That night we spent in a miserable serai at the foot 

 of the pass, and as bad weather came on we had to make 



