py Axcuieanp Livrie, Fr. 1. o. 8, We descended from Sanwangmino by a very steep staircase to the banks of " eniall rapid stream, whose banks we full until it emerges through a cleft in the on to the plain We were enjoying beautiful sunshine; indeed it was our first spring day, but all we could see of the famous patent below was a sen of yellow haze, pierced by green fol far us the eye could reach, creased in size: i d out deep ravine with high cliffs in plies which exhibit a fine geological section of the strain, in places here, ay throughout, horizon'al!—of different coloured sandstones and marly, white, brown, grey, vermilion, purple, all disintegrating; while our pathways paved with a tough bluish sandstone. The rich assortment of building stone in the country we have been traversing, from Wanhien on, is scarcely utilised; all the houses are mostly adobe with thatched routs, " few of the Detter class only using brick und tile: the stone is reserved fur the construction of the invaluable opposition manure traps {ws Wingrove Cook well named them) which wre feature in every Chinese lands scape; here they wre built with substantial ye Walls nnd roofed with broad sandstone slabs,, hulding out every inducement tu the passing wayfarer upon whom the Chinese agriculturist is ssu largely dependent for his indispensable fertilizer.
The hills drop suddenly into the alluvial though, here on the East und Swuth not as sharply as do the high limestone cliffs which fence in the plateau to tothe North and West. We traverse an orange grove and three tniles farther reich a crowded dirty town called Chaochinti, This Ferry of the Chao family" is built on sandbank between two wide shallow streams coming from the North which unite lower down to form the T6 river, which lower down serves the great salt district of Toeliuching and conveys its produce to the famous mart of Luchow, situated ut its junction with the Yangtz-, 150 miles above Chungking. Of the two streams one the Peh, or North, one the Tang, or East river, 100 yards in width and, at this fearon, two to three feet in depth, the first we crossed by a ferry and the second by temporary bridge of ricketts planks upon which it surprised me, clever as he is, that the pony was able to keep hia footing, The "Chas family" turned out in their thousands as I rode through their dirty streets and seemed prepared to give me an unplessaut send-off at the ferry, but my men quieted them with the inform: ation that [was come to build them a railway On a pony and in European dress one is necessarily a conspicuous object on former journeys and ina closed sedan have passed with almost no notice whatever.
Continuing slong the level plateau, through a succession of farms, groves of bamboo, walnut and many fruit trees, now just opening into blossom,—past innumerable alder-lined irrigation streams. and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.