The Rock " Shih Pao Chai" 109 



all, however, under water in summer. At noon, passed a 

 remarkable and picturesque rock, called " Shih Pao chai," 

 or " Stone Precious Castle." This rock rises a hundred feet 

 from its talus in perpendicular cliffs, its summit being flat and 

 of about two hundred feet by fifty — ^just sufficient space for 

 a temple of three courts which covers it. The talus rises 

 steep from the river for 200 feet, making the height of the 

 whole about 300 feet. Against the south-east face is built 

 a nine-storied pavilion, about sixty feet wide at the base, 

 springing from a handsome temple built of wood, with a 

 projecting, curved, pagoda-like roof extending from each 

 story. This forms the ascent to the rock above. On this, 

 again, is Ibuilt a two-storied pavilion, the whole, when seen 

 end on, appearing like a huge eleven-storied pagoda. At 

 its foot is a village, at which it was market-day, and the 

 crowd, in the white turbans common in Szechuan, and in 

 their long blue gowns, looked uncommonly smart and un- 

 Chinese. I saw here, for the first time during my many 

 years' travel in China, men with red staves in their hands, 

 and with large shields slung across their backs, called " Men 

 Pai " (Door Shields), meaning " Census," and reminding one 

 of our sandwich-men. They are engaged in numbering the 

 people (or rather the houses), a custom apparently more 

 honoured in this orderly province than elsewhere. We 

 passed on until we came to a reach, where the native rocks 

 have got the better of the river, which forces its way through 

 them in intricate channels with a deafening roar, the bed 

 being here nearly a mile wide. We made here one of our 

 many daily crossings, in which we usually lose a mile of our 

 hardly-earned vantage. This is a dangerous crossing, and 

 a life-boat is stationed here. Only an accurate knowledge 

 of the eddies enabled our men to cross the rushing waters in 

 safety. We regained a good lot of our lost ground by the 



