Exctirsions in the South of China 357 



\i\ the cool of the evening we retraced our steps to Shao-K'ing, 

 and by sunset left the landing-place of Shao-K'ing on our home- 

 ward voyage, reaching the Pass of Shin-Hing-Hup at dusk. The 

 entrance to the gorge looked most dismal and uninviting, so that 

 our boatmen were anxious to anchor outside the narrow passage 

 until daylight, but we insisted on their proceeding in spite of their 

 hideous tales of Lally Lus and other horrors. So we went on 

 through the dreary pass, all being still and quiet as the grave, only 

 disturbed by the occasional flight of the night-herons (Nycticorax 

 griseus) and the distant cry of the short-eared owls (Otus brachy- 

 otus), which frequent these rocks. We were soon fast asleep, and 

 were about half-way through the defile, when we were suddenly 

 awakened by a collision with another boat, and the cry of Lally Lus 

 from our boatmen, who came tumbling below in extreme terror. 

 We jumped up on deck, and soon saw that the crew of the other 

 boat, against which we had bumped, was as frightened of us as our 

 men were of them, and had also rushed below, and were busy get- 

 ting out their long pikes, so we had only to shove the boats apart, 

 and retire to our slumbers, after a hearty laugh at our disturbance. 

 By midnight we had arrived at the custom-house of How-li, and 

 made fast to some salt junks lying close to the shore here. 



On the 15th of March, on arising in the morning we found our- 

 selves the objects of interest to all the crews of the various craft 

 lying off the custom-house (established for levying the war tax). 

 The vessels bound up the river formed a convoy loaded with salt, 

 and those from the upper waters, bound downwards with indigo, 

 oil, paddy, firewood, silk and tea. There is only a small village 

 at How-li, where necessaries can be procured for victualling the 

 passage boats, and we here hired a guide to take a few of our 

 party up to the wooded mountains of Ting-Hu-Shan to visit the 

 famous monastery which reposes under its shadows. The re- 

 mainder of our party crossed over to To-Ki to shoot snipe, which 

 abound in that locality. Our guide, by name Teen-Tuk, with two 

 boys, Ayow and Asam, led us inland to the north-west, about five 

 miles across flat open fields, in which the skylarks (Alauda coelivox) 

 were carolling under the sunshine. The country is diversified by 

 small hamlets, ponds, and marshes, full of waterfowl, gallinules, &c. 

 We followed the course of a shallow stream tumbling over 

 its rocky bed, tracing it up a long valley, on each side of 

 which arose lofty hills, here and there scarped perpendicularly with 

 huge boulders and moraines, lying scattered on the slopes at their 



