than the possessors of the most fertile soil; and this being the primitive, the freest, and perhaps the most natural condition of man, the circumstance ought not to excite our astonishment. The mere act of locomotion is pleasant to man, and in pastoral tribes, accustomed to wandering from their infancy, it becomes a passion, the gratification of which is happiness.
"On the 2d of November, about noon," says Bell, "we could perceive the famous wall, running along the tops of the mountains, towards the north-east. One of our people cried out 'land!' as if we had been all this while at sea. It was now, as nearly as I can compute, about forty English miles from us, and appeared white at this distance." The nearer they approached the mountains, the more were they astonished at the grandeur of this wall, which, as Voltaire very justly observes, makes no inconsiderable figure even upon the map of the world. "The appearance of it," says our traveller, "running from one high rock to another, with square towers at certain intervals, even at this distance, is most magnificent." In two days they arrived at the foot of this mighty barrier, and entered through a great gate into China. Here a thousand men were perpetually on guard, by the officers commanding whom they were received with much politeness, and invited to tea.
"The long, or endless wall, as it is commonly called," says our traveller, who has given the best account I have yet met with of this prodigious undertaking, "encompasses all the north and west parts of China. It was built about six hundred years ago by one of the emperors, to prevent the frequent incursions of the Mongols, and other western Tartars, who made a practice of assembling numerous troops of horse, and invading the country in different places. The Chinese frontiers were too extensive to be guarded against such bold and nu-
