'■'Longevity" City 129 



place we threaded our way through extensive flat reefs, and 

 passed under a steep clifif on the left bank, into which were 

 built two stone archways, as though opening into the rock. 

 Landing in a broiling sun, I climbed up the steep talus, 

 and found these to be archways of trimmed sandstone, built 

 into a cave in the rock, in the rear of which sat two colossal, 

 gilded Buddhas — the images of a bean-curd seller and his 

 wife, who resided near this spot when in life, and after death 

 were canonized for their good deeds. 



Shortly above this quaint evidence of the religious spirit 

 which still pervades the Chinese, we enter the " Chien-tao," 

 or " Scissors " Gorge, where projecting points narrow the 

 river to about 300 yards. • The strata of the steep banks, 

 above 1000 feet high here, dip at an angle of about 45" to 

 S.W., and several burrows of soft coal have been opened. 

 It is noticeable that hereabouts, not only the houses, but 

 all the local boats, large and small, use coal for fuel, for 

 burning which they have specially-constructed stoves, with 

 low, tUe chimneys. On emerging from this gorge we entered 

 a wide reach, bordered by less precipitous hills, and the city 

 of Chang-sho * rises up before us on the left bank. This place 

 is peculiar, in that the walled city proper occupies the flat 

 summit of a hill some 500 feet high, nothing but the outside 

 of its walls, with their crenelated battlements standing out 

 against the evening sky, being visible from the river, with 

 which it is connected by a straggling suburb creeping down 

 the hill a mile and a half long. A small affluent, now dry, runs 

 on the south-east side, crossed by a lofty (fifty feet) four- 

 arched bridge. A handsome Confucian temple adorns this 

 suburb, in which the business of the place, which consists 

 principally in the export of bamboo matting for packing 

 goods, appears to be transacted. Much of the matting used 



* = longevity, 



K 



