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U-tsien District.
49

fine brass idol too, and, singularly, in one of the upper rooms, a white porcelain image which the priests call the Goddess of mercy. A cross on the breast, however, and foreign crown, at once stamp it as a "Mary" of Roman Catholic manufacture.

To reach the western Teen-muh, the road has to be retraced almost as far down the hill as the 1st Ding, until a path, or rather steep flight of steps is met leading to the right, down which the traveller proceeds until he reaches first the Monastery called Chow-ming-haen of five priests, and then the village of Tcha-se-achin of 150 families. Here the formation, across a woodland valley, is of red hard sand stone.

Near Tcha-se-achin will be found a tomb evidently of great antiquity, embosomed in some splendid elm like trees and other shrubbery, enlivened with the antics of squirrels, and the music, a deep clear note, of a very handsome long-tailed bird, to be found only in this region. Five west of Tcha-se-achin we reach the base of a sharp ascent called Chou-foo-ling. After thirteen minutes walking a small mud hut is reached, and five minutes walking further up the steps, is a Ding, from which there is a gentle descent W. S. W. to two or three houses. The lower strata of this hill is similar to that of the base of the Eastern Teen-muh, viz black slaty shale, in rounded boulders 20 and 30 feet thick—the faces of the hills angling up as precipitously as 40°—the strata at an angle of about 5°.

From the western base of Chou-foo-ling the ascent for some distance, W.N.W. is not too steep for a chair, until the head of a valley is reached in which five villages lie within short distances of each other, the hills around being perfect forest wood land. Ke-chak is a small hamlet of ten families, a or so only from