. William H. Seward's travels around the world. life L*tf * B I !i Itil ! THE CITY OF 183 of tlie city of Peking. This little city of ISTan-Kow has fortificationsadequate to the largest garrison. Inscriptions on the gate-ways andarches in four different dialects, Mongolian, Mantchoorian, Chinese,and Thibetian, besides another dialect which is no longer extant,prove the great antiquity of these structures. Besides these fortifi-cations, Nan-Kow is encircled by a wall which stretches over hilland valley in such a way that, while it is no longer useful for anypurpose of defence, one can
. William H. Seward's travels around the world. life L*tf * B I !i Itil ! THE CITY OF 183 of tlie city of Peking. This little city of ISTan-Kow has fortificationsadequate to the largest garrison. Inscriptions on the gate-ways andarches in four different dialects, Mongolian, Mantchoorian, Chinese,and Thibetian, besides another dialect which is no longer extant,prove the great antiquity of these structures. Besides these fortifi-cations, Nan-Kow is encircled by a wall which stretches over hilland valley in such a way that, while it is no longer useful for anypurpose of defence, one cannot but hope that it may be preserved. GATE AT NAN-KOW. for picturesque effect. Thus we seem here not to be seeing thepresent China, but the China of the past. From the very gate of !Nan-Kow, we found neither regularroad, nor marked nor beaten track, but a ravine, which, in the 184 JAPAN, CHINA, AND COCHIN CHINA. lapse of ages, a torrent lias excavated down the mountain, falling athousand feet in a distance of twelve miles. Our upward way lay-in the rugged furrow of this torrent. Each passenger was lashedtightly in his mountain chair, which is simply an arm-chairmounted on two shafts, and borne by four coolies, his safety de-pending on the tenacity with which his feet press against a swing-ing board suspended before him from the shafts. The coolies picktheir way by crossing from one side to the other over uneven,broken bowlders and rocks, and through deep gullies. The passen-ger at one moment is in danger of slipping out backward from hischair, at another of being thrown out one side or the other, andagain of being dashed
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Keywords: ., bookcentury180, bookdecade1870, booksubjectvoyagesaroundtheworld
