Many pilgrims, in fact the large majority of them, make the ascent carried all the way. to' the top in very comfortable style. The more devoted go up very slowly, knocking their heads every few feet; indeed some say at every one of the six thousand and note steps." During the Taiping rebellion and the robber raids following, the city of Taian and the neighbouring country suffered greatly, and the pilgrimages were very much interfered with, and from the decline of those years the city and the worship hav never recovered, $0 that now the city is only a'shadow of its former self and the number of pilgrims has become greatly yinced. This year the number of Visitors uss been very small, owing partly to the spring being late so that the mountain was covered with snow until long after the beginning of the pilgrim season.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.