III.—Across Europe and Asia.—Travelling Notes

Extract

After much slipping and sliding—for the small stream of water which flows down the pass had often glazed it from side to side—we reached the village of Yamborshan, just outside the Kalgan walls. Here I was well received by the Russian Postmaster, M. Shismaroff. This village, like Kalgan itself, is romantically situated in a defile, which is bounded by mountainous cliffs of a volcanic rock, called by Pumpelly a porphyritic trachyte. Before entering Kalgan, you pass underneath a gateway in the famous Great Wall of China. Right and left from this point, it rapidly ascends to the summit of the cliffs, which bound the defile, and its towers are seen standing on pinnacles of rocks, and looking over precipices from positions which seem inaccessible.