7504 Birds. 



Hawking at the Great Wall. — As we approach the sliglilly projeclinsr angle of the 

 coast of Pechili, where the Great Wall ends, in the waters of the Gulf of Liantung, we 

 perceive a narrow lawny line of sand and some green clusters of dark trees, with the 

 giil)le ends of joss-houses showing through the foliage, and fur a back-ground a slate 

 coloured-mounlain range. The Great Wall, witli its square lowers and crenulated 

 parapet, climbs the distant hills, and winds along the level plain at their bases. Land- 

 ing at some rocks, we pass through a gap in tlie ruined pier of the Sea-Gate, mount a 

 flight of broad granite steps, and get upon the top of the Wall. Here we see a quaint- 

 looking watch-house, with high peaked roof and twisted gables, some important fat 

 and lean mandarins, a few Tartar soldiers, horses and all, and a very inquisitive mass 

 of shaveu-pated, narrow-eyed, long-tailed sons of Han. The " observed of all 

 observers," we pass through the intensely-staring throng, and our walk upon the Great 

 Wall of China is an accomplished fact. When we again descend to the sandy plain, 

 we visit the temples seen nestling so prettily in the sacred groves of dark-leaved trees ; 

 and here we find ourselves among fantastic gable ends ajid carvings, gilded dragons, 

 and great bells hung in old-fashioned belfries. In ihe courtyard of the temple of the 

 biggest joss is an antique bronze urn, and on either side a culossal tortoise, bearing on 

 its back an upright monolith covered with inscriptions. These old stone tortoises are 

 possibly coeval with the Great Wall, and fashioned some 20S0 years ago. The sur- 

 rounding country has, for this ])art of China, rather a flourishing aspect, although the 

 building within the Sea-Gate are in ruins, and the " famous myriad-mile Wall,'' as the 

 Chinese, in the pride of their hearts, love to call it, is in a very dilapidated condition, 

 and in some parts is even banked up, and nearly covered with sand. Sheaves of 

 newly-cut millet (the common food-plant of North China) are piled up in every field 

 — for it is harvest time at the Great Wall ; and scattered over the plain are little 

 straggling homesteads, for the most part snugly embosomed among trees, the flat roofs 

 of the low mud-built houses just visible here and there through the green foliage. A 

 few Chinamen are quietly at work among the millet, and groups of donkeys are 

 reposing in the broad shadow of the Great Wall, which is seen vanishing in the far 

 distance. Here we halt while friend Bedwell sketches the scene, and I smoke a 

 pipe and contemplate from behind the cloud. An old gray-bearded man silently joins 

 us, and solemnly lights his pipe at the sun by means of a burning-glass, a large 

 pebble lens without a flaw or scratch, and which he mysteriously produces from the 

 folds of his garments. As we everywhere observe along the shores of this gulf, a belt 

 of sandy soil fringes the sea-board, where burdock and the yellow toadflax, a small 

 blue-flowered Iris, the wild onion, and the crane's-bill {Erodium maritimum) are the 

 only plants, and lizards and grasshoppers the only animals. In some parts the ground 

 is swampy, and there are shallow snipe-haunted fresh-water pools. Here some teal 

 and the garganey duck are shot by our sportsmen, as are also some curlews and some 

 golden plovers. Two herons, the gray and the white, are common ; and in this 

 locality the godwit, the snipe and the sanderling find themselves at home. In the act 

 of demolishing a frog the great bittern is wounded, and rather astonishes the dog 

 " Dash," as, with sharp open beak and bristling loose neck-feathers, he fiercely stands 

 at bay. Overhead the wild geese and ducks are flying South in immense flocks before 

 the cold northerly gales ; the ubiquitous magpie is of course perched on the village 

 trees, and the serious rook has work of his own among the grubs in the newly-ploughed 

 fields; a goldencrested wren hops daintily among the low bushes; the wagtail is 

 jerking about the dry mud-flats ; the skylark, singing, is lost among the clouds ; and 



