About 100 carts were gathered about the station, which is only partially complete as yet. So many were the carts and sightseers, that that houseless place hal a very busy appearance. The station is in the open, the nearest village being scme distance away. But the country seems well-cultivated, and t" have a rich and productive soil. Indeed this pstch of land south of the capital is one of the richest andi best cultivated spo's I have seen in a long time, But all this was sadly changed soon after leaving Féngt'ai. For miles the road passes through about as desolate and dreary @ country as one need to wish for—sandy; sparse and stunted vegetation, and the villages in sight are far, far away." Some of the Imperial grounds are near at hand, but there is little to be seen of them from the cars, short distance from Fengt'ai the road, which at that' point had been nearly §.W. and NE, turned to the left almost at a right angle towards the S.B., showing that the.line is far from a direct one from Tientsin to Peking. A story is told of a. f-riner Russian Emperor, that after expert engineers had Inid out the lite of railway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, touching all the chief places between the two in the interest of trade, he took the map of the road when placed before him, laid a ruler upon it and drew a straight line between the two points, and signified that this was the line of the road. It is a pity some one could not have dealt with this coad in the same manner: it would have shortened the distance: to Peking considerably, the road would have passed through a b-fter country and neater important towns, and so have been in the interest, of trade-d velopment as well. As it is, the western half of the row is little better than a desert, snd. throughout the entire distance it appears to have been an object to avoid all towns and villages us much og possible. One cannot help quorying what the object of the road is, for it appears not to be in the interest of trade, her than betw-en the termini.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.