Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/171

 Lhe Gorges of the Lien-Chow Rwer. 167

floor beneath stalagmites rise in graceful pillars, while the drip, drip, drip of the water, charged with a solution of bicarbonate of lime, tells us that the process by which the beautiful forms have been created is still going on, adding fresh touches to the old, and bringing new wonders into existence. Plucking a small stalactite from the wall behind us, we find its slender end for several inches is a hollow, brittle cylinder, a thin film covering the end of the tube, which is easily crushed, and, when broken, discharges a few drops of water and some calcareous sediment.

At the foot, and on the sloping sides of the mounds of white rock, are many bowls of various shapes, filled with the clearest water. Their edges are scalloped and jagged, and their inner surface is covered with a rough formation, having the appearance of petrified sponges. The shapes of the objects about us are of infinite variety. We see chairs, thrones, pedestals, pillars, couches, and beds, with sparkling white drapery falling in heavy folds. The inner wall is pierced by numerous passages, that extend back into the heart of the hill, in which the beauty of the larger room is, if possible, exceeded. In them are pools of water several feet deep, but so transparent that they are not observed until a misstep coolly warns us of their presence,

Corrugated masses there are to which the feet easily adhere, and pillars with deeply-indented sections, as if wrought by the most delicate chisel; slender spires and pinnacles, glistening for the first time when our light falls upon them. Everything is of untarnished purity, clear as the light, and spotless as the new-fallen snow.