remain a standing evidence of what can be done by sheer hard labour, without the aid of modern machinery and ap-
pliances. I fear though, that this is the only good purpose they will serve ; for, as I remarked before, the Chinese have no notion of looking after these delicate pieces of mechanism when they have got them.
At Hunchun was stationed the lieutenant-general in charge of the frontier—a person of considerable importance—and on the day after arrival we proceeded to call on him. He received us after dark at his official residence in some state. Every official residence in China has a number of gateways, more or fewer of which are opened according to the rank of the visitor. In our case every gateway was opened ; the courtyards were lined with soldiers, and the whole place was lighted up with Chinese lanterns, which, as the residence was newly built, and large and spacious, made the scene very bright and picturesque. General I (pronounced Ee) was a dignified, fine-looking old soldier, who had done much good service in the Taeping rebellion. He was very polite and courteous, treated us to some champagne, and talked to us in an intelligent and interesting manner. Nobody can be ruder than a common Chinaman, and nobody can be more polite and refined than a Chinese gentleman when he wishes.
From Hunchun Mr. James had written to the commander of the Russian post across the frontier, saying that we were unprovided with passports to travel in Russian territory ; but that, if he would give us permission to do so, we should like very much to visit Novo-kievsk. We then started off towards Russian territory. At about ten miles from Hunchun, on the
summit of a hill, we saw a tall sort of obelisk with an inscription on it, which we found to be the boundary-pillar
set up only a few months before by the Chinese imperial commissioner sent in conjunction with a Russian commissioner to define the frontier in this direction. Just beyond we D
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