The Kung Rapid River 127 



quarter, worked under the big sweep from a spot where the 

 deck approaches to the horizontal. 



The Kung t'an Ho enters the Yang-tse immediately south 

 of Fu-chow and in line with the main river, which here takes 

 a sharp bend to the north. The angle of the bend opposite 

 the town forms a lake-like expanse, in which many reefs 

 and sandbanks are now visible. On the latter are some of 

 the Wai pi-ku'rh hauled up for repair, so that I had an 

 opportunity of carefully investigating the extraordinary shape 

 I have described above. A violent whirlpool, the feeble 

 remains of which swept us rapidly past, forms off this town 

 in summer ; and if a descending junk happens to get caught 

 in it, she is inevitably swallowed up ; so said my informant. 

 This was a native of Shantung, the captain of a hundred men 

 (part of the garrison of three hundred), who called on board 

 while we were relieving Ting-chai, and who, having had 

 much intercourse with foreigners while in the Chinese navy, 

 was one of the few men who have it in their power to give 

 an approach to accurate information. Fu-chow is full of 

 spacious temples ; one holding a commanding position on 

 the point, and overlooking the suburb under which we 

 moored, was under repair. On inquiry, I found that, 

 although the knoll on which it stands is sixty or seventy 

 feet above the present river-level, the temple was completely 

 washed away in 1877. It is surprising that they should 

 have rebuilt it on the same spot. 



Above Fu-chow another long reef of rocks runs out 

 parallel with the right bank, outside of which we tracked ; a 

 few miles further is the picturesque town of Li-tu, built on a 

 sloping ledge sixty to a hundred feet above the river, and 

 running with the strata, which here dip to the south-south- 

 west. Above and below are the sandstone cliffs, which crop 

 up in every direction throughout this region. 



