July 17—Left at 6. am, Passed through the quiet streets of Nanchuan, which seems to be a city of Jabout 10,000 inhabitant a district of scores of day we had a short stage, but a difficult one; lovely valle 5 precipitate paths, making one dread to think of any slip of the foot, entered a winding valley through which flows a rivulet, and this we had to wade 20 times in about four miles; the stream was two or three Hfeet deo in some places, and it was ficult to keep our footing. The Jcoolies managed to keep the chairs; jand baggage out of the water.
At one tempting place I had a refreshing swim. The scenery®was gorgeous, and majestic, with sheer} cliffs in places several hundreds of feet high, down some of which were leaping and tumbling cascades of} clear sparkling water. Huge boulders in the valleys suggested tales of dreadful rents and crashes jin bygone days. We were tired out} Jon arriving at Tahopa at foot of the mountain; there is no village, but a few straggling huts, and Jone of these we are staying, in barn. like quarters; on one side I have a Jcow-shed, on another there are pig-ties, and on the third are met these wre divided here and there by natural clefts, through one of which we went, the sides tovering majestically above us. We continued the ascent to nearly the level of the tops of the cliffs, when the Dr's aneroid showed 7,300 above sea. level. The highest point reeorged by us was near 8,000 feet, but careful confirmation would be necessary before I could definitely state that, to ho the height of the mountain.
We tramped on and on over the! table-land in search of the temple jwe had heard of, where we hoped to find some accommodation. The mountain is well covered with various kinds of medicinal herbs, ind the few people living there joke out an existence by gatherirtg these for sale, and also by sulphur mining. We saw several primitive mines worked for sulphur) in sine way as coal is mined here, the shaft enters the hill almost horizontally. The men at work ere} Jquite naked, and they must have Jdreadful hives.in the dark little tunnels where there are none of the modern methods of overcoming} difficulties with water and Inck of fresh air. The sulphur is liquefied and ran into moulds, making cake of various sizes suitable for tron: port, We saw some agricultural ratches, and discovered that very fine potatoes were produced, The Temple at the Summit At Tongth we reached the temple, Jand found it to be a curious place. It has a straw thatch as tities cannot! stand the gales sometimes experienc. Jed here. Already a few people have Jarrived for the coming festival and have secured the rooms on one side} of the building. We are assured; that we shall not be interfered with; Jduring the days of worship, yet we {think it unfortunate we came just at this time; but we were not aware Jot. the festival when we began our journey. We have to take such accommodation as we can get, and. mine is a curious little room, with mud floor, very damp; dirty' walls lof bare stone and mortar, no ceiling under the thatch, so dust is con-Jstantly falling down. I am next to the cook-house, and as the partition is not cerned up to the top, I have {full benefit' smoke and smell us they pass through my room to the outer world. There is only one snail window, with no glass, and the room dark and dingy. The D's have a better room, which they have already made fairly sung. The energet Jdoctor at once made his investigations and arrangements, and after a brief snooze on a plank, he set off Jon his return trip. He was the first American to ascend, Chinshan, July 20—The night was quite coal, jand our coolies, who were sleeping' jin the large Chinese kitchen, no bedding, fired up a lot of brush-}wood ete. which smoked dreadfully making my eyes smart severely. However, sleep enabled us to forget all our troubles for a time, This has been a fine day and we have enjoyed short walks to become eequainted with our surroundings, The temperature is cool, indeed the Chinese are sitting over fires, and! we are glad of extra clothing in the evening. This is a complete change from the overpowering heat of the city of Chungking.
Scotch Mist and Noisy Pilgrims We spent nine days. at the temple on the mountain top; we went for walks, and had glorious views of the valleys, and of the thanks of clouds with peaks shawm through like islands ina sea, We made friends with the few people Hiving around, and visited some of the huts in which they live, Few of them had ever seen a foreigner before; we found them friendly and well-behaved, which was more than could be. said of som: of the "pilgrims" who came feom. other ease daily, and ce ditions became noisy and somewhat unpleasant. The weather, too, beleave very wet at times, and at oth times we were enveloped -in heavy "Scotch mist," which, added to the thick smoke of burning incense, made things almost unbearable.
This temple is @ very convenie one for worshippers, as it contains shrines of the three religions, and worshippers go all the way round while they are at it, paying their devotions to all, without noticing fany incongruity." They bring large bundles of incense, and burn a few sticks before each idol, and the rest they burn in a bonfire just outside the old priest assuring them that ist the same," as the goes know how much they have brought, 20 it is immaterial whether it is' burnt inside the temple or outside! Among the worshippers are some who read vows before the shrine, promising what they will do if the god will help them during the coming year, The Singing Pilgrims we also groups of four inging pilgrims," 'These come distances singlily or chanting all the way "0 mi to Foo," calling fon Amita Buddha, 'The' central figure in these. groups ha a peculiar kind of head-dress, witl 8 veil hanging, over his shoulders, fand a red band tied round his head; carries a little tray with a lighted stick of incense before him; another lone chants from a small book, and the end of every sentence' they chi in with the doleful cry. 0 imi yo Boo." Gong or gourds are used to keep time to thie strange music, There groups usually come on some special errand of intercession "for sick people, or sometimes they are all brothers praying for a sloke parent. The devotion of these Pilgrims is. tobe admired; but Unfortunately many of them are victims of opium and other vices to which they turn as soon as they have opportunity When the attendance at the temple nurabered hundreds we found conditions becoming unbearable, The smoke from the incense and paper being burned, as well as the noise, land the great curiosity to see us at fall. times, and occasionally the rudeness displayed, made us "feel that we should probably do better to leave, We tried to find other accommodation near by, the fow squalid huts which" the people shared with their pigs and fowls ete. rave us no hope. We finally decided to move to another temple some 30 Li distant, on the further slope the mountain; this, we were assured, would be much quieter, and we should exeape the remaining four [days of noise and smoke connected with the festival.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.