372 THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA 



matter. Here is a statement of definite facts and of conclusions drawn from 

 them in clear and simple words, marking; a new step in the statistics of forests 

 in this country. Undeteri'ed by the evident j)aucity of information, and with 

 a de;trree of skill of which I cannot speak too lii^ddy, l\Ir Gannett has given us 

 the best there is in the most practical foim. He has had the cooperation and 

 assistance of an admirable corps of men in his own division, of whom Graves, 

 yudworth, Ayres, and Leiberg are of national reputation in forestry, but he 

 lias succeeded in obtaining results from other sources so extensive that without 

 them ills work would have been altogether imjjossible. To the men who have 

 supplied tiie.se results, and especially to Mr Thomas Cooper, of the Northern 

 Pacific Railway, it is but fair to acknowledge our debt. 



GiFFOi!!) Pinch or. 



THE GRHAT WALL OF CHINA* 



The great wall of China was built at a time when the wild tribes of north- 

 eastern Asia were pressing forwai-d into the lowlaixls, whither their kinsmen 

 had gone centuries before. It most probably consisted originally of a line of 

 detached earthworks, which some able ruler or captain strengthened and con- 

 nected so as to present an unbroken line to the public enemy. It is said to have 

 been finished 205 B. C. by Tsin Chi-Hwangti, and to be nearly ],G00 miles long. 

 The Chinese call it the "Ten-thousand-li wall," and if it really had any such 

 length, it would be something over ^,500 miles long. 



It is from 25 to oO feet high, 15 to 20 feet thick, and revetted, outside and in, 

 with cut-granite masonry, laid in regular courses, with an excellent mortar of 

 lime and sand. It is surmounted by a j)aiapet or battlement of gray burned 

 brick IS or 20 inches thick, covered with moss, and pierced with crenelated 

 openings for the defenders, whether archers or matchlockmen, to tire through. 

 The rear or inner revetment wall is also furnished with a lower parapet, but it 

 is not crenelated. The top is paved with a double layer of brick about a foot 

 .square. The inside of the wall is made of earth and stone well rammed in. 

 Kvery 200 or 300 yards there is a flanking turret 35 or -10 feet high, projecting 

 beyond and overlooking the face of the wall in both directions, and near each 

 turret is a stone staircase leading down between the walls to a door opening 

 ui>on the ground to the rear. 



The most astonishing thing about it is, however, that it climbs straight up 

 the steepest and most rugged mountain sides, courses along their summits, de- 

 scends into gorges and ravines, and, rising again, skirts the face of almost in- 

 accessible crags, crosses rivers, valleys, and ])lains in endless succession from 

 one end of the empire to the other— from the seashore on the Gulf of Pechili 

 to the desert wastes of Turkestan. No spot is left unguarded or uncovered, 

 and, no matter how fierce and active were the wild tribesmen who assailed it, 

 or how innumerable were their armies, it is evident that it could, if well de- 

 fended, even by men armed with nothing better than stones, defy tiie world up 



♦From China, by J.inies H. Wilson. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 



