SPORT AND SCIENCE ON THE 
importance superior to any other town in North 
Shansi. Godowns, inns, hotels and even private 
houses sprang up like mushrooms round the 
station, while there poured in from all parts of the 
northern section of the province strings of carts 
laden with sorghum, millet and linseed. Large 
firms in Tientsin, which had never heard of the 
town before, found it worth their while to send 
European agents to buy up grain for them. 
This prosperity did not last, however, for the 
moment the line was carried on to Ta-t’ung Fu 
and towns beyond, a great bulk of the grain 
shipped at Yang-kao was shipped at these 
towns instead. The line itself, however, will 
remain of the greatest importance, as tapping 
a very extensive agricultural area. A few more 
such railways, carefully run, would go far towards 
bringing in a steady revenue to the Chinese 
Government, besides developing the hitherto 
poverty-stricken districts along the Chinese fron- 
tiers of Mongolia. 
The morning of April 30 broke fine and clear, 
so that we made an early start. Travelling north- 
ward, we soon reached the mouth of a deep valley 
in the mountains, entering which we turned west- 
ward up a side gorge. By noon we had reached 
the end of the latter, and crossing a low, almost 
imperceptible ridge, marked by the crumbling 
towers of the Great Wall as it passes from north 
to south across the road, entered a rather wide 
104 
