The railway to Shanhaikwan runs at first close to the sea through a monotonous stretch of mud flats, and then reaches a most fertile country with walled villages and substantially built houses. It was guarded by the 4th Punjaub Infantry, detachments of which occupied the stations along the line. Not long before, this fine regiment had been engaged in a punitive expedition against the brigands who had slain Major Browning. After a severe fight they captured the fortified villages held by 4,000 well‐armed banditti, and terribly avenged their officer. As the country was still infested by roving bands of robbers who raided defenceless villages, the station buildings were put in a state of defence, the walls loopholed and head‐cover provided by means of sandbags until each resembled a miniature fort. But the brigands, after practical experience of the fighting qualities of the gallant Punjaubis, evinced no desire to come in contact with them again; and the detachments along the line were left to languish in inglorious ease and complain bitterly of the want of enterprise on the part of the robbers. For some distance alongside the railway runs a canal, which is largely used by the Chinese for transporting grain and merchandise. As our train rattled along, we passed numbers of long, shallow boats, fashioned like dug‐outs and loaded down until the gunwale was scarcely a few inches from the water. The half‐naked boatmen toiling at their oars paused to gaze with envy at the swift‐speeding iron horse, which covered the weary miles with such apparent ease. The crops here were even more luxuriant than on the way to Pekin. Fields of ripe grain stretched away on either side of the line, interspersed with groves of trees or dotted with villages surrounded by high walls, significant of the continual insecurity of life and property in this debatable land. Here and there were deserted mud forts. The journey from Tientsin to Shanhaikwan occupied about twelve hours. About midway the train stopped for a short time at Tongshan, a town important for the coal mines near, which are worked under the direction of Europeans. From the windows of our carriage we could see the tall buildings and the machinery at the mouths of the pits, which gave quite an English character to the landscape. For the convenience of travellers, the British officers quartered in the place had established a refreshment room in some Chinese buildings near the station, and lent some Indian servants to it. As our train was due to wait some little time, we all descended in search of lunch, and were provided here with quite a good meal at a very reasonable rate. Our German fellow‐passengers, ignorant of Hindustani, found some difficulty in expressing their wants to the Indian waiters, whose knowledge of English was very limited. We came to the rescue and interpreted, and gained the gratitude of hungry men.