Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/103

 Teng-o0 and the Marble Caves. 99

At the foot of the Shiu-hing gorge the native Custom House necessitates a halt. and inspection of our goods and passports. The broad volume of the West River is here contracted into one-fourth its ordinary width. On either side rise abrupt rocky mountain barriers, nearly two thousand feet high. The hills along the southem side are partially covered with tea plantations. These tea fields on the steep slopes are protected, in places, by hedges around their lower borders, and the ground between the plants covered with dried grass and bracken to keep the soil from being washed away. In these hills also are found deposits of a peculiar kind of black rock, smooth and porous, from which ink-stones are made, Of this material there are many grades, some having the capacity of absorbing the ink in greater quantities than others, and adding to their usefulness in proportion. Large supplies of these stones are shipped to all parts of the country, as every school boy must: have his ink- stone, and writers are even searching for those of superior quality. The demand for them is constant.

Along this gorge the rocks in places stand up like pinnacles, towers, and various other shapes, and have received peculiar names in consequence. (me, called “Mong-fu,” or “The Expectant Wife,” is conspicuous, The legend of the place relates that the husband left his wife to go on business into the adjoining province, where some mishap befell him; and his faithful wife, after years of anxious waiting, was changed into stone, in the attitude shown by the projecting rock. In the next province, through which this river flows, a rock is shown which bears the name of * The Detained Husband,” and is supposed