Page images
PDF
EPUB

of labour that may be performed by common means. It was the extreme difficulty of conceiving how the materials could be conveyed, and such structures raised, in situations apparently inaccessible, which principally occasioned surprise and admiration. One of the most elevated ridges over which the Great Wall is carried has been ascertained to measure five thousand two hundred and twenty-five feet.

"This species of fortification, for to call it simply by the name of wall does not convey an adequate idea of such a fabric, is described to extend, though not equally perfected throughout, in a course of fifteen hundred miles; for of that length was the boundary line between the civilized Chinese and several restless Tartar tribes. Upon such barriers, indeed, was not supposed to depend the fate of nations in actual war. A superior army is always found to overcome every species of defence; no fortification is impregnable; but fortresses delay the progress of an enemy. They preserve a country from being surprised by a sudden invasion; and fortified walls protracted along a boundary line serve as a protection against sudden unexpected inroads, or the partial attacks of individual plunderers in the midst of peace."

Particular attention was paid by Captain Parish, who accompanied the Embassy, to the architecture and dimensions of the walls and towers. He observes: "The body of the Great Wall is an elevation of earth, retained on each side by a wall of masonry and terraced by a platform of square bricks. The retaining walls, continued above its

platform, form its parapets. The brick wall is placed upon a basis of stone projecting about two feet beyond the brickwork, and of which the height is irregular, owing to the irregularity of the ground over which it runs; but not more than two courses appear above the sod, amounting to somewhat above two feet.

The towers incorporated with the Great Wall are distant from each other about 100 yards; but as the plan of the wall is a curve line, this distance estimated by that line is variously, and sometimes considerably increased; when greater strength was required, they are sometimes more frequent. Their dimensions and constructions, and the positions they hold with respect to the wall, also vary considerably with their situations.

Our conceptions, then, of the Great Wall of China must be modified on the following points. In place of one continuous wall of vast dimensions extending uninterruptedly for a distance of one thousand five hundred miles, winding over hill and dale, mountains and rivers and presenting an appearance almost as new and uninjured as when built by the Emperor Ch'in Shih two thousand years ago, we must picture to ourselves several walls, all now in a more or less ruined condition, some built before and some after the reign of the Emperor just named, which may or may not have been repaired, completed and connected by him, and at one time have presented the magnificent spectacle which we are usually taught to look upon as exhibited throughout in the same pro

portions and elaborate degree of finish in the older Great Wall as we find in that portion which was constructed during the Ming dynasty. As regards the latter, we have seen that it must be considered to be of greater extent than is usually supposed, extending not merely in a north and south direction between the provinces of Chansi and Chili, but also eastwards to the sea at Shan-hai Kuan, being either an entirely new wall, or the repair of an older one now decayed; but in any case not being the original wall either of the Prince of Yen or of the Emperor Ch'in Shih; a conclusion which we found to accord with the present comparatively recent aspect of that part to account for certain appearances in the existing structure which have had no use in primitive warfare, and to explain also, in a more satisfactory manner than has hitherto been done, the silence of Marco Polo on the subject.

The Great Wall of China will never be repaired. It will stand on in silence through the ages like some vast tombstone of a bygone time, but the circumstances which caused its erection and would necessitate its restoration will never recur. Now that China is learning that floating walls are of more real service to her than stone ones, she is not likely to waste on the latter energies which she perceives would be more usefully expended in making and organizing the former; and although her principal enemy occupies relatively the same geographical position as did the nations against whom the wall was erected as a defence, yet, however serviceable they may have been in the past

such appurtenances of primitive warfare would be of little use in the present. So that this vast structure, which has been reckoned amongst the seven wonders of the world, and has, as it were, been a spectator of interesting periods of Chinese history for so many ages of a picturesque past, has nothing left but to await the day when Time shall bid it cease to exist.

THE GREAT WALL OF PERU

WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT

UZCO was the Holy City, and the great Temple of the Sun, to which pilgrims resorted from the furthest borders of the empire, was the most magnificent structure in the New World and unsurpassed, probably, in the costliness of its decorations by any building in the Old.

Towards the north, on the sierra or rugged eminence, rose a strong fortress, the remains of which at the present day, by their vast size, excite the admiration of the traveller. It was defended by a single wall of great thickness, and twelve hundred feet long on the side facing the city, where the precipitous character of the ground was of itself almost sufficient for its defence. On the other quarter, where the approaches were less difficult, it was protected by two other semicircular walls of the same length as the preceding. They were separated a considerable distance from one another and from the fortress; and the intervening ground was raised so that the walls afforded a breastwork for the troops stationed there in times of assault. The fortress consisted of three towers, detached from one another. One was appropriated to the Inca, and was garnished with the sumptuous decorations befitting a royal residence, rather than a military post. The other

« PreviousContinue »