Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 67 (Color Image)

0067	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. II.] N I NGUTA. 43

and salmon, we were living luxuriously enough

to make up for our privations in the forests of

the White Mountain.

As we neared Ninguta the valley opened up

into a wide plain, which was well cultivated

and populated, and on October 26 we reached

Ninguta, a flourishing place of nearly twenty

thousand inhabitants. Here we found a tele-

graph station just opened. The Chinese

attach considerable importance to this frontier,

touching as it does on Russian territory, and

the construction of this telegraph line was one

of the signs of the interest they took in it.

The line was well and stoutly constructed

under the supervision of a Danish gentleman.

But the office was manned entirely by Chinese,

and the language in use was English. Every

clerk spoke English, and it was a pleasure to

us to meet any one who spoke our native

tongue.

We halted here a couple of days, and then

started for Hunchun, a garrison post of some

importance, situated on the extreme frontier,

and just at the point where Russian, Chinese,

and Corean territory meet. Winter was

creeping on apace now. The thermometer

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