Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 582

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Topography of Shántung.

OCT.

of the canal, and there was no need of dams, which were themselves nearly under water; and we occasionally observed sluices at the sides of the canal for discharging the superfluity. Clumps of large trees, cottages, and towers, were to be seen on all sides half under water, and deserted by the inhabitants. The number of these towers led to the inference that they were provided as places of refuge in case of inundation, which must here be very frequent. Wretched villages occurred frequently on the right-hand bank, along which the tracking path was in some places so completely undermined with water, as to give way at every step. Hurdles of reeds were often laid down to afford a passage to the feet."

XII. The department of Lintsing as Chili on the north and west, and the departments of Tsínán and Tungcháng on the east and south. Davis observes in his Sketches, "It was not until the 22d of September that we reached Lintsing chau, where the canal commences. About noon on that day we passed a pagoda of nine stories (páutáh) in a perfect state of repair; the first that I had ever seen in actual occupation. The ground plan was octagonal, and round each story was inscribed in large characters O-mi-to-fu (Ami- da Budha), being the constant invocation of the Budhist priests. Several of our party went on shore to inspect it. Like all such edifices, it was erected in honor of the relics of Fu, the worship of relics being a part of their idolatry; and the date of the pagoda was since the completion of the Grand canal. Its good condition was therefore probably owing to imperial or public endowment. A winding stair of nearly two hundred steps conducted to the top, the height of which was estimated to be something under one hundred and fifty feet. The basement we observed to be excellently built of a sort of granite, and all the rest of a glazed brick, beautifully joined and cemented. Only two idols of the Budhist sect were discovered in it; one of these occupied a niche in the lowest, and the other in the highest story. From the top of the pagoda a very extensive and beautiful view was obtained of the surrounding country, including the city of Lintsing chau at its feet, full of gardens and cultivated grounds interspersed with buildings." Sketches, vol. I., page 212.

In addition to the preceding list of departments and districts, we add a few paragraphs from the Sketches of Mr. Davis, containing some notices of the canal on which the embassy passed through this province. Early on the 23d September we entered the Canal through two stone piers, and between very high banks. The mounds of earth in the immediate vicinity were evidently for the purpose of

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