M. Kovanko’s General View of the Environs of Pekin. 245 
grey quartz, with a vitreous lustre, and black mica, alto- 
gether imperceptible in some places. No other minerals of 
any consequence have been found in it. To judge from the 
name it bears (In-Shan), which means the mountain of sil- 
ver, there is reason to believe that it formerly furnished the 
ore of that metal; and, indeed, one of the hermits dwelling 
in the neighbourhood, a man of about seventy years of age, 
assured me that in his youth a vein was worked in that moun- 
tain, the ore from which was taken out at night and secretly 
smelted to obtain the silver. 
The shaft of the mine to which he alluded, is now filled up 
and covered with buildings ; there was therefore no means of 
ascertaining the truth of this tradition. 
At the foot of Mount In-Shan there existed anciently an 
immense temple of the religion of Ahé-Shan, inhabited by 
400 monks, the traces of which are still to be seen. A path 
made on the flank of the mountain led quite to the summit, 
and the steps hewn in the granite exist at the present day. 
The path is now obstructed by stones, and overgrown with 
bushes, so as to render it difficult to climb the very steep ac- 
clivity of the mountain. Having proceeded by this path 
about three verstes, I was obliged to surmount a precipice 
nearly vertical, in which small holes were cut of a size barely 
sufficient to enable the points of the feet to rest in them. 
But the trouble of overcoming all these obstacles is well re- 
paid, for the view from the summit of the mountain is of it- 
self an object for the sake of which it is worth undertaking 
this excursion. The plateau on the summit is encompassed 
by a balustrade of granite, very handsomely worked. In 
the middle there is an altar cut out of a single biock of the 
same rock, and close to it, an enormous bell of cast-metal 
suspended to pillars of granite. 
Notwithstanding the number of ages these monuments have 
existed, they are in a perfect state of preservation, which 
proves the solidity of their construction. 
The heat was insupportable during my ascent of In-Shan, 
and I was dying of thirst ; but a fresh breeze, and some mul- 
berries which I gathered on the summit of the mountain, re- 
