Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/132

 128 Ling-Nam.

Tang dynasty, is said to be on Lion Hill, near the present monastery of the White Tiger. In the local chronicles we find many records of striking occurrences. In 1532 a flood, which rose a hundred feet and desolated the country occurred ; in 1780 the place was shaken by an earthquake, accompanied by a noise like thunder; and in 1840 a similar occurrence is reported; in 1817, and again in 1829, the district was visited by terrific hailstorms ; the stones that fell are described as being of the size of rice bowls, and doing immense damage; in 1833 snow fell to the depth of over a foot; and in 1834 there were fifteen floods in the course of the year; while in-1871 and 1872 the country was devastated by floods and landslides.

Opposite Ying-tak, a stream that comes down from the hill of Yung-uen enters the North River. It is shallow and full of rapids, and is navigated by small, wedge- shaped boats, so constructed as to be able to shoot the yapids with ease. Only a few miles up the stream is a tremendous cataract, down which the water pours at an angle of forty-five degrees. Chinese passengers always alight and walk around the place, but the only white man who has ever passed that way kept his seat in the boat, enjoying the exhilarating sensation of flying down the inclined plane of water. Yung-uen is famous for its plums, which are of a very superior quality, for its minerals, especially sulphate of copper, and for its tigers, which sometimes decimate the population, and which, in the year 1868, are. said to have destroyed between thirty and forty people in the district, The Yung-uen stream is sometimes called the Tam-shui, or sulphate of copper stream, and also the Tung-shui, or copper river. As early