Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/180

 176 Ling-Nam.

pass is not a continuous narrow defile as the one below, nor has it the weird, fantastic charms of its neighbour. The precipitous walls are a whitish-grey, with streaks of red, and are destitute of verdure. On the south the cliff projects several yards over the water, and from some inner fissure in the rock a stream of water pours from beneath the over-hanging mass into the river. In this and the passes below are seen evidences of the terrible freshets that sometimes swell the river. Twenty and thirty feet above the ordinary level of the water are lodged logs and drift-wood, showing the height to which the water sometimes rises when heavy rains bring down the floods from the hills, and the now beautiful and transparent stream is transformed into a fierce and foaming torrent. Emerging from this last pass, we slowly ascend the ‘‘ Horse Face” rapid, when the Lien- chow pagoda greets us, as it stands out conspicuously on a prominent hill that rises abruptly from the southern bank of the river. Passing this, we escape at last from the mountain barriers that have walled us in on either side so long, and look across the beautiful plain of Lien- chow. A range of high mountains, with cloud-wreathed summits, stretches away to the west and north, marking the line of division between this and the adjoining provinces.