448 



Miscellaneous. 



by the exquisite adjustment that Death has become the source of 

 Life. — And if my illustrious namesake, when supporting the theories 

 of Hutton, in his assertion that the world shewed no traces of a 

 beginning, nor none of an end — meant to include that the organic life 

 on it is also destitute of such traces, we cannot assent with him. 

 But that no evidence of a beginning, nor of an end exist in the 

 world itself, we fully admit ; yet that that beginning was, and that 

 an end will be, we have the word of One " that cannot lie." — Annals of 

 Electricity. 



A General View of the Environs of Pekin. By M. Kovanko, Major in the 

 Corps of Engineers of Mines; translated by Lieutenant- General Lord 

 Greenock, F. R. S. E., from the Annuarie du Journal des Mines de 

 Russie, annee 1838. Published at St. Petersburg, 1840. 



Pekin is situated in a plain bounded on the north-west by a series 

 of mountains belonging to branches of the chain Tkah'i-Khanc, which 

 takes its origin at the Yellow River, and is prolonged to the north-east 

 nearly as far as the sea of the same name. 



The Chinese distinguish these mountains as Northern and Western, 

 according to their position relatively to the capital ; they are, besides, 

 equally to be distinguished by the nature of their rocks. 



Limestone, together with dolomite, predominate in the Northern 

 Mountains, and in those of the West, diorite (greenstone), with all its 

 varieties, as well as sandstone and slates containing beds of coal. 

 These two series of mountains being cut in different directions by de- 

 files and steep valleys, it is difficult to determine their point of con- 

 nection. 



The Northern Mountains are a day's journey from Pekin, which 

 does not imply any considerable distance : the Chinese travel so slowly 

 that they never go farther in one day than from 60 to 80 li,* or 34 

 or 44 versts. The road in the direction of these mountains passes over 

 alluvial clays containing much lime. In very dry weather, this clay 

 becomes so hard that it can scarcely be broken with a pickaxe, while 

 in wet weather it becomes entirely liquid, and forms mud that is near- 

 ly impassable. In summer this road is very picturesque ; vast fields 

 extend beyond the view on both sides. Notwithstanding the labour 

 and expense which are required at that season for the cultivation of 

 this land, the farmer is amply repaid by the abundance of the harvest, 

 which supplies at the same time bread for himself, food for his cattle, 



* The li is equal to 274-i sagenes of Russia. 



