Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/158

 134 Ling-Nam.

tion, or more, if the traveller has the time to give, being full of caves of remarkable formation, and covered with a vegetation of great variety. White and tiger lilies deck their sides in the proper season. Orchids, ferns, and an astonishing variety of creepers, add interest. and beauty to the ever-varying scene that moves before the eye. Through this interesting cluster of hills passes the foot- path from Sam-kong to Tai-wan, the passage over which affords a pleasant relief from the tedium of boat travel to those who are equal to a ten miles’ walk and.clamber over a mountain path. Just before entering the pass, our attention is directed te a rocky prominence overhanging the water, where it flows deep and tranquil before descend- ing the rapids. Its sides are full of holes, in which great numbers of birds find shelter, and fill the air with their noisy chatter as they come home in the evening. On its summit are several houses in a position that the lovers of a breezy situation might envy. The “Yellow Reed” Pass has no striking features to distinguish it; the hills are smooth and regular, the waters deep and quiet. It is a favourable place for fishing with cormorants; and the effect. produced by the light bamboo rafts of the fisher- men, with their flaming torches, passing under the dark shadows of the hills in the stillness of the night, is very striking. Beyond this pass, the level space of cultivated land on either side of the river widens again, broken into by hills on the east and north, and walled in by a semi- circle of higher hills, rising one above the other to the south and west. Set against the background of these hills is the market town of M4-p6, whose well-preserved stockade, fronting on the river, gives it the appearance