ls, while we paid a visit
to the Old Town, as the Tartars designate it. Our impression, as we
entered the vast enclosure, was one of mingled awe and sadness. There
were no ruins of any sort to be seen, but only the outline of a large and
fine town, becoming absorbed below by gradual accumulations of wind-borne
soil, and above by a winding-sheet of turf. The arrangement of the
streets and the position of the principal edifices, were indicated by the
inequalities of ground. The only living things we found here were a
young Mongol shepherd, silently smoking his pipe, and the flock of goats
he tended. We questioned the former as to when the city was built, by
whom, when abandoned, and why? We might as well have interrogated his
goats; he knew no more than that the place was called the Old Town.

Such remains of ancient cities are of no unfrequent occurrence in the
deserts of Mongolia; but everything connected with their origin and
history is buried in darkness. Oh, with what sadness does such a
spectacle fill the soul! The ruins of Greece, the superb remains of
Egypt,--all these, it is true, tell of death; all belong to the past; yet
when you gaze upon them, you know what they are; you can retrace, in
memory, the revolutions which have occasioned the ruins and the decay of
the country around them. Descend into the tomb, wherein was buried alive
the city of Herculaneum,--you find there, it is true, a gigantic
skeleton, but you have within you historical associations wherewith to
galvanize it. But of these old abandoned cities of Tartary, not a
tradition remains; they are tombs without an epitaph, amid solitude and
silence, uninterrupted except when the wandering Tartars halt, for a
while, within the ruined enclosures, because there the pastures are
richer and more abundant.

Although, however, nothing positive can be stated respecting these
remains, the probabilities are, that they date no earlier back than the
13th century, the period when the Mongols rendered themselves masters of
the Chinese empire, of which they retained possession for more than 100
years. During their domination, say the Chinese annals, they erected in
Northern Tartary many large and powerful cities. Towards the middle of
the 14th century the Mongol dynasty was expelled from China; the Emperor
_Young-Lo_, who desired to exterminate the Tartars, invaded their
country, and burned their towns, making no fewer than three expeditions
against the