SIX WEEKS IX A TOWER. 57 



it was well that I went along with him ; for he ran 

 some risk, and was soon prostrated by fever and 

 delirium. 



Thus it was that two cavaliers (all except the 

 horses) might have been seen landing in the begin- 

 ning of January last at the town of Kow-loong, or 

 the " Nine Dragons," and wending their way over a 

 steep mountain -pass. It Avas always delightful to 

 reach the summit of that pass, and the little tea- 

 house there, the keeper of which invariably told me 

 every time I came, and as a new and interesting fact, 

 that he had a son in Hong-Kong who understood the 

 Kwei-wa, or " devils' dialect," meaning English. It 

 was always pleasant to look from this tea-house on 

 the distant harbour of Hong-Kong, and feel that I 

 was leaving Occidental civilisation behind for a week 

 or two at least, and entering on the agreeable variety 

 of Celestial temples, towers, and chopsticks. The 

 pull up to it was stiff and uninteresting, over barren 

 hills ; but whenever we began to descend, the scene 

 changed to a picturesque valley, crowded with small 

 fir-trees and cedars, with bright-coloured ferns plen- 

 tifully growing round huge black rocks, and with a 

 clear mountain stream falling every now and then in 

 white cascades into dark pools. It was night when 

 we reached Shateen, or " Sandy Field," on Mirs' 

 Bay, an arm of the sea which has its entrance about 

 fifty miles up the coast ; but finding there was a pass- 

 age-boat about to start, we made a hasty dinner, and 



