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Tupography of Kiangsi
JULY,
will presently appear, independent of its great natural beauties. Our first excursion was a walk towards the Lii shán; and we succeeded in reaching the top of the range of hills next in height to them, though still greatly inferior, and thence had a noble view of the lake and the surrounding country. These hills were covered with earth to the very top, but yet uncultivated. The herbs which grew upon them in vast variety were, almost without exception, strongly aromatic. A beautiful species of bright laurel leaved oak, and the sycamore, were the principal trees observed.”
The town of Nánkáng stands on the western shore of the lake at a place where it is very narrow. "We arrived," says Mr. Davis, "at this city early in the day, and anchored near a mole, built along the northeastern side of the town, forming a small harbor for boats to lie in, secure from the tempestuous waters of the lake in bad weather. Sufficient swell existed, as it was, to make it resemble an arm of the sea, and the shore was covered with shingle in the manner of a beach. Immediately on our arrival a party proceeded to walk through the town. The walls were new, and appeared to have been lately built or repaired, but the town, strange to say, was completely deso- late within. The shops were not so good as at the little town Tákú táng, where we had lately stopped, and a very large portion of the area within the walls consisted of fields. The only decorations were a considerable number of honorary gateways (páilau), on which the carved relief was remarkably bold, and contained representations of ancient historical events in well executed work. The inscriptions on some of these proved them to have existed between two and three hundred years, from the solid material of their construction, very unlike the wooden gateways of the same kind which we had often seen elsewhere. The town must at some former period have been an important and flourishing place, in connection with the literary and classical recollection of the Lü shán in the immediate neighbor- hood."
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On the 16th and 17th Nov., Mr. Davis made two excursions up the heights of those mountains, the beauty and sublimity of which, com- bined with their associations, has rendered them the frequent subject of poetical celebration among the people. As the mountains appeared to the author of the Sketches,' on the 16th, during his first excursion, the "highest peaks were evidently covered with snow drifts." On this day, the lateness of the hour compelled him and his fellows to return earlier than they wished, having directed their course to a very fiue and conspicuous water-fall. A large party set off the next