Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/129

 «llong the North River. 125

entrance to the Lien-chow stream, which flows down through a charming country for one hundred and twenty miles. We reserve for succeeding chapters the descrip- tion of this river of wondrous beauty, and enter at once the narrow defile before us. When the carlicr expeditions from the north crossed the ridge and made their descent upon the broad plains of the south, in the second century before our era, a stockade city, with ten thousand troops, was built at this point to guard the narrow pass, which formed the only way of access to the districts concerned, This gorge in the hills is ten miles long, the hills on either side rising to a height of over two thousand feet. In the upper and lower sections the hills are bold, rocky, picturesque, rising almost perpendicularly from the water, but in the middle section they are rather tame, being smooth and grass-covered, and retreating more gradually from the river. Native taste and imagination have given names to the various rock formations, which are pointed out as we pass slowly up the gorge. There is the “‘ Stone General,” in a prominent position near the top of the cliff, to preside over the place. There is the “ Lonely One,” an isolated, needle-shaped pinuacle some twenty feet square that stands out conspicuously. All eyes are strained to trace the outlines of the Blind Boy, which in certain positions are seen with great distinetness on the face of a perpendicular wall of rock about one hundred and fifty feet above the water, The form, the features, and the appearance of the cyes, are striking when seen at the proper angle. The “Stone Coffin,” the “ Rock of Genii,” and many other resemblances more or less fanciful are remarked, and finally, as we emerge from