This was the valley of the Yalu, which from its source to the sea forms the frontier between Korea and Manchuria. The black specks that crawled like insects over ridge and flat were men awaiting the word of command that was to make these silent hills resound with the thunders of battle. Our horses picked their way through the squalid streets and halted at the head-quarters of the Guards. A wooden gate, shaped like a temple, told us in Chinese characters that this was Wiju--“The Stronghold of the West.” Through the walls of the city have poured again and again the invading armies of China, for Wiju is the ford of the Yalu, and along the track that resumes its march among the mountains has been borne for centuries the tribute paid by the Emperor of Korea to his suzerain in Pekin. Most of the inhabitants had fled and the mean lanes of thatched hovels had a depressing aspect. Passing through the North Gate we came to a steep hill crowned with a temple--Toguntai, or “The place from which to command an Army”--and saw far below us a splendid panorama of mountain and river. In bands of green and gold the delta meandered seaward among streams of dark blue and tawny brown. Rugged heights, seamed with deep gorges, reached down to the Northern shore. Against the blue sky beyond, range after range of hills purpled in the distance. The slopes were scored with passes through which rode Russian horsemen. Westward the mountains recede and are less precipitous, leaving ample space for the group of houses known as Chiu-lien-cheng, which is not a walled town as the name implies. Near slate-roofed barracks stood a few Cossacks: others rode slowly down towards the river Ai that flows within two thousand mètres of the hamlet. On the hills above Chiu-lien-cheng could be traced earth works and trenches that commanded the highway along which an army from the South must pass. Seaward, in the shadow of low receding hills, lay the Manchurian town of Antung with a population of 150,000 and a considerable trade in nankeens, oil, iron, and timber, as the junks in the creek testified.