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CHAPTER VI. 



ON TO CHUNG-KING. 



Iron workers — Census taking — Site of old Chung-chow — A rain- 

 bringing opera — Deforesting of the country — Feng-tu — The temple 

 of the Chinese Pluto — Fu-chow — Chang-chow— First sight of 

 Chung-king. 



After departing from the city of Wan, we journeyed on 

 through a beautiful country, the sandstone mountains eroded 

 into marvellously romantic outlines. On the left bank a 

 range of the same picturesque hills, about 800 feet high, and 

 in many reaches too steep for cultivation. On the right 

 bank rise gentle ranges of from four to five hundred feet, 

 cultivated to the summit, and backed by mountains rising to 

 2000 feet. The air is balmy in the bright morning sunshine 

 with the odour of the rape and bean, now in full flower ; the 

 water is pellucid, and flows with a smooth current of from 

 two to three knots, except where it is intercepted by and 

 rushes round the numerous rocky points, which at intervals 

 contract the channel when it flows at double this speed. 

 I mounted up to one of the villages, which are mostly 

 situated at 200 feet above the present level, safe from the 

 summer floods. This, like many others, is built astride a 

 steep glen filled with tall cypress, and is called "Tung 

 tsz'yu'rh," or " Dryanda' Garden." A.steep flight of steps, the 

 lower portion neatly cut in the solid rock, leads up about a 

 thousand feet through this prettily terraced hamlet. Leaving 



