MARBLED ROCK. 
193 
The next morning I rose early, in the hope of viewing some strange 
shaped rocks seen at a distance the preceding evening, and was 
not disappointed. The forms of those which now skirted both 
banks of the river, partaking largely of the usual grotesque characters 
of mountain scenery in China, were too numerous to admit any 
detailed description. Much of the singularity of the scenery, how- 
ever, was occasioned by very rugged rocks contrasting with others of 
an uninterrupted surface. Limestone rocks, apparently made up of 
immense masses heaped confusedly together, were often opposed to 
others of sandstone, rising with an extensive and even front to a 
great elevation. Occasionally they formed a channel for the river, 
so winding and narrow, that they seemed to terminate its course. 
Amidst this interesting scenery a marbled rock on the right bank, 
rising perpendicularly from the surface of the water to the height 
of two or three hundred feet, particularly arrested my attention. 
I call it a marbled rock, because its surface was of a fine red 
colour, covered in places with a stalactitic incrustation of a delicate 
whiteness. I landed at its foot, and found it resting on a breccia 
formed of fragments of grey compact limestone, of a calcareous red 
sandstone, and of rounded fragments of quartz, cemented by a fine 
grained red and white limestone. Many of the fragments of lime- 
stone had the same characters as the rocks in the valley of Mei-ling, 
and were, perhaps, derived from them. The breccia rose only a few 
feet above the water. The principal mass of rock resting upon it 
exhibited no stratification, but appeared to be one entire mass of fine- 
grained flesh-red granular limestone. 
Further down the river we passed other rocks of a breccial 
character, but having their component parts on so large a scale, 
that they could be distinguished at a considerable distance. When 
close to us, many of the fragments appeared to be from forty to 
sixty feet square, and generally had defined edges and angles : the 
fragments were of a gray, the connecting medium of a red colour. 
I have endeavoured to represent their general aspect in the upper 
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