tion."

If this telegram does not gratify the editor of my newspaper, well--

Two hours to visit Sou-Tcheou, that is not much.

In Turkestan we have seen two towns side by side, an ancient one and a
modern one. Here, in China, as Pan-Chao points out, we have two and
even three or four, as at Pekin, enclosed one within the other.

Here Tai-Tchen is the outer town, and Le-Tchen the inner one. It
strikes us at first glance that both look desolate. Everywhere are
traces of fire, here and there pagodas or houses half destroyed, a mass
of ruins, not the work of time, but the work of war. This shows that
Sou-Tcheou, taken by the Mussulmans and retaken by the Chinese, has
undergone the horrors of those barbarous contests which end in the
destruction of buildings and the massacre of their inhabitants of every
age and sex.

It is true that population rapidly increases in the Celestial Empire;
more rapidly than monuments are raised from their ruins. And so
Sou-Tcheou has become populous again within its double wall as in the
suburbs around. Trade is flourishing, and as we walked through the
principal streets we noticed the well-stocked shops, to say nothing of
the perambulating pedlars.

Here, for the first time, the Caternas saw pass along between the
inhabitants, who stood at attention more from fear than respect, a
mandarin on horseback, preceded by a servant carrying a fringed
parasol, the mark of his master's dignity.

But there is one curiosity for which Sou-Tcheou is worth a visit. It is
there that the Great Wall of China ends.

After descending to the southeast toward Lan-Tcheou, the wall runs to
the northeast, covering the provinces of Kian-Sou, Chan-si, and
Petchili to the north of Pekin. Here it is little more than an
embankment with a tower here and there, mostly in ruins. I should have
failed in my duty as a chronicler if I had not noticed this gigantic
work at its beginning, for it far surpasses the works of our modern
fortifications.

"Is it of any real use, this wall of China?" asked Major Noltitz.

"To the Chinese, I do not know," said I; "but certainly it is to our
political orators for purposes of comparison, when discussing treaties
of commerce. Without it, what would become of the eloquence of our
legislators?"

CHAPTER XXIII.

I have not seen Kinko for two days, and the last was only to exchange a
few words with him to relieve his anxiety.

To-night I will try and visit him. I have ta