line, a good deal of
rolling-stock, and truck-loads of superior looking bricks. Chinese
were _wheeling_ barrow-loads of mud instead of, as is usual,
carrying it in baskets, owing, probably, to Muscovite persuasion.
Country looked rich, well cultivated and well peopled; the women,
being nearly all Manchus, having large feet. Chinese carpenters,
bricklayers and joiners at work on many new stations and houses.
Pigs, cattle and fowls. Few birds. Thinly wooded. A pleasant
looking country. Donkeys, ponies, goats and mules.

At Moukden, which is the capital of Manchuria, the train only stopped
for a few minutes, and as the station was outside the city walls, I
could get no idea of what the place was like. From Moukden to Dalny I
saw many and substantial traces of Russian occupation. At one point a
mud fort crowned with guns, at another a large camp with half a dozen
field-pieces, and so on.

The line all through seemed to be well laid, though rails far too light,
which forbade running at high speeds. There appeared to be too few
sidings. On one of the cars I saw the number 2,741, which may be some
indication as to the amount of rolling-stock. Along entire length of the
line I noticed overhead telegraph wires, which sometimes numbered six or
seven and occasionally two or three.

For the whole journey the food on train was good, but owing to the large
number of passengers, after giving the order one had oftentimes to wait
from an hour to an hour and a half before getting served. After Baikal
this considerably improved, there then being two restaurants, one for
smokers and one for non-smokers, whereas before, men smoked without
restraint while women and children were eating their meals. This
dining-car was a perfect babel of tongues, for there were collected
Russians, English, French, Japanese, Germans, Swiss, Chinese and
Italians, generally all talking at once.

On the whole we rubbed along fairly well, although where so many
nationalities were closely packed together for a fortnight, a certain
amount of racial antipathy was occasionally bound to appear. When no
Russians were about both the Japanese and Chinese would eagerly question
me on the chances of war. When a Russian appeared, they immediately
seemed to lose all interest in the subject. The Germans affected to
despise the Russians, and the Russians said they hated the Germans,
while they both suspected the English.

_4th November._--We reached Dalny at 7 a.m., and I