inding through broken, shaggy chasms and huge, wandering fragments, now
suddenly emerging into some emerald valley, where Peace, long
established, seems to repose sweetly in the bosom of Strength.
Everywhere beauty alternates wonderfully with grandeur. Valleys close in
abruptly, intersected by huge mountain masses, the stony water-worn
ascent of which is hardly passable.

Yes, Yuen-nan is imperatively a country first of mountains, then of
lakes. The scenery, embodying truly Alpine magnificence with the minute
sylvan beauty of Killarney or of Devonshire, is nowhere excelled in the
length and breadth of the Empire.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote U: The incredulous of my readers may question, and rightly so,
"Then where did he get his saddle?" So I must explain that I met just
out of Sui-fu a Danish gentleman (also a traveler) who wished to sell a
pony and its trappings. As I had the arrangement with my boy that I
would provide him with a conveyance, and did not like the idea of seeing
him continually in a chair and his wealthy master trotting along on
foot, I bought it for my boy's use. He used the saddle until we reached
Chao-t'ong.]

[Footnote V: A new inn has been built since.--E.J.D.]

[Footnote W: Pronounced Djang-di. Famous throughout Western China for
its terrible hill, one of the most difficult pieces of country in the
whole of the west.]

[Footnote X: This river, the Niu Lan, comes from near Yang-lin, one
day's march from Yuen-nan-fu. It is being followed down by two American
engineers as the probable route for a new railway, which it is proposed
should come out to the Yangtze some days north of Kiang-ti.]

CHAPTER XII.

_Yuen-nan's chequered career_. _Switzerland of China_. _At
Hong-sh[=i]h-ai_. _China's Golden Age in the past_. _The conservative
instinct of the Chinese_. _How to quiet coolies_. _Roads_. _Dangers of
ordinary travel in wet season_. _K'ung-shan and its mines_.
_Tong-ch'uan-fu, an important mining centre_. _English and German
machinery_. _Methods of smelting_. _Protestants and Romanists in
Yuen-nan_. _Arrival at Tong-ch'uan-fu_. _Missionaries set author's broken
arm_. _Trio of Europeans_. _Author starts for the provincial capital_.
_Abandoning purpose of crossing China on foot_. _Arm in splints_. _Curious
incident_. _At Lai-t'eo-po_. _Malaria returns_. _Serious illness of
author_. _Delirium_. _Devotion of the missionaries_. _Death expected.
Innkeeper's curious attitude_. _Recovery_. _After-