Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/62

 58 Ling-Nam.

Three miles down the broad river we pass Teetotum Fort, which guards the approach to the city from the south. It is strongly built, a pointed tower, or good-luck pagoda, rising in the centre, and giving it the appearance ~ of the toy from which it receives its name, Traces of its occupation by the British are seen in the mottoes, proverbs, and names inscribed on its inner walls. It is built on a rocky islet, and on the banks adjacent several massive forts assist in the defence of this main waterway to the metropolis of the south.

To the right of this fort is the entrance to “ Wong's Canal,” which is passable for ordinary boats at high tide, and reduces the passage of six miles by the river to two, Its construetion forms an interesting episode in Chinese annals, General Wong, an insurgent chief, was bearing down upon Canton, and had reached the junction of the two streams a few miles below the site of the present fort, where a strong force was massed to oppose him. After a series of fruitless manwuvres, he hit upon the plan of digging a canal across the low point of land between the two streams. Favoured by darkness, his soldiers worked with eagerness, and ere the fifth wateh struck, had not only finished the canal, but had transported their boats through it to the main stream, whence, with the enemies’ behind, they pressed on to surprise the city by an early and unexpected attack.

This canal leads us into one of the main arteries that. intersect the delta, called Fat-shin Creek. On the right, as we ascend, the low rice lands are bordered by hills covered with tea plantations, and large villages set in shady groves, On the left is a series of hills called Sam-shan,