Foreicn residents of Tientsin and Peking are, of course, fully aware of the extent of the line that has been opened in the North to public traffic, and how substantially and carefully it has been constructed under the able direction of the Engineer-in-Chief, Mr. W. Kinder. But foreigners in Central and Southern China who have never visited Tientsin or the capital have, perhaps, only a vague idea of the mileage of the Northern lines, of the district passed through, of the recent exten-property of Sir Robert Hart, a part of the car has been comfortably upholstered and is reserved for such foreign travellers as choose to make use of it. To travel by these reserved cars it is not necessary to take the ordinary ticket, but each traveller when seated in the car is provided by the foreign postal clerk with a special pass, for which he has to pay the sum of $5. The-comfort thus obtained is well worth the charge made.
On the other side of Tientsin isa single-track line running almost due east for 27 miles to Tangku, which is now virtually the shipping -port: for ''Tientsin, and, judging by the present appearance of the Peiho, is likely to be permanently and solely -the port for that emporium. From -Tangku the line takes a north-easterly direction to Shanhaikuan and beyond. The country about Tangku is dreary in the extreme, being a mere mud flat, devoid of stick or stone, and devoted only to the production of salt from brine pans, but a few miles-beyond scanty crops begin to appear and the country generally improves as each mile is passed. "At-Lutai, 51 miles from Tientsin, are several large camps of native soldiers, and'beyond this the country improves greatly-in appearance owing to its being better wooded. At Nangshén, 80 -miles from Tientsin, the Kaiping coal fields are reached, and thence: to Kuyeh, 14 miles further on, some 10
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.