The very poor and aged of course remained, nnd being questioned by the soldiers replied that twenty-five miles from Ichang at place called Magpie Hill there was unfathomable cave i the recesses of which was a formidable band of insurgents preparing to invade the valleys below. Eventually, the government troops visited the spot but found an ordinary sized eave with nothing remarkable about it and stuffed Inlf-full with oversrowth and creepers, without the slightest indication of having been occupied by man. Near, there were few straw-huts ocessionally' occupied by the country-people who visit the place for firewood. Hence the groundlessness of all these runvurs which has caused such a stir and scare aniongst the country people of Ichang and its environs, as well us amongst the city people.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.