Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/163

 The Gorges of the Lien-Chow River. 159

our eyes along them there appeared no secluded nook, and we had fondly hoped for such a spot where we might spend the Sabbath hours in quiet meditation. In the morning we took some books and went to the village near at hand, bringing the message of salvation to the few unlettered peasants who gathered to hear us, and then proceeded to a fountain of water which gushed beneath the rock in the hillside, clear and sparkling in the sunlight. Its music we had heard as we passed along to the village, and thought, perchance, we might there find the spot we wished for. It was pleasant under the shade of the lofty trees, soothed by the musical cadences of the waterfall; but the natives soon-came in such numbers as to destroy our expected quietude. We went further up the hill to get beyond them, and had gone but a few steps when a scene of exquisite beauty burst upon us.

There was a delightful glen literally embosomed in the mountains. On the further side was a perpendicular wall of rock, and on the nearer side the lower hills rose like ramparts, and shut it out entirely from the view of those passing on the river. Tall cliffs of unequal size rose in the midst of the glen, and between them flowed a brook of clear, sweet water, “chattering over stony ways in little sharps and trebles,” keeping harmony with the songs of the many birds that come to feast on the fruit of the brambles that grow by the brook side. Tall, handsome grasses, in luxuriant clusters, waved their heads like rich plumes in the passing breeze. Large trees cast a broad and generous shade, under which we sat to rest. No man was there, and had it not been for signs