apricot and the white of plums, and reached the Yü-ch'üan-yuan or Jade Spring Temple at the foot of the bleak Ching Ling range. The chief monk here was seventy-one years old. He was very friendly, and produced the usual sweetmeats, and also a Chinese plan, not to scale, however, of the Hwa Shan. On the wall were collections of Chinese cards left by visitors ; and Pereira added his, as the old monk said he had none of a foreigner, though several Europeans had been there. This and all the other temples of the Hwa Shan were under Taoist monks, ruled by a superior (Tao-kuan) living at the big Hwayin Miao in the plain. There are two ranks of monks, the Lao-tao or higher monks, and the Tao-tung. The former wear their hair coiled up in a ball on the top and secured by a carved piece of wood, and wear a circular soft cap with a hole in the centre for the coil of hair.
Leaving the Jade Temple, which stands at an approximate height of 2200 feet above sea-level, the path leads up a narrow valley, crossing the very stony bed of a beautifully clear stream a dozen times in the first mile. Afterwards it is sometimes a series of uneven steps, sometimes rocky and sometimes easy. All the way the scenery is magnificent. On the left rises a great mountain with perpendicular walls of rock ; whilst on the right the ascent is possible in places. Eight small uninteresting temples are passed. And sometimes footholds are cut in the rock leading up to small shrines in caves. At the end of the valley, due south, rises the Hwa Shan itself. It is connected with a lower ridge on the north-east side, and then runs up into a sharp peak (the Hsi-peng)
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