Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 35 (Color Image)

0035	Among the Celestials : vol.1

cIIAP-. I.] CHINESE TEMPLES. 13

flimsy, and one never seems to meet with

evidence of that immense amount of care and

labour and thought in their construction, or of

that sense of the beautiful, which characterises

the great temples of India. The wooden

pillars, often plain, and the grotesquely painted

walls which one mostly sees in China, are a

poor substitute for the stately marble pillars

and exquisite carvings of an Indian temple.

On May 29 our caravan was complete, and

we left Mukden to travel eastward to the Yalu

river, on the borders of Corea. We soon

entered a hilly country, and the scenery daily

increased in loveliness hillsides covered with

woods of a thoroughly English type, oaks and

elms ,such as we never see in India, and valleys

filled with thriving little villages and hamlets,

and streams and rivers affording glimpses of

exquisite beauty. The quantity of flowers and

ferns too, was extraordinary. Mr. James was

making a botanical collection, and in one day

we found five different kinds of lily of the

valley, maidenhair ferns of various forms one

especially lovely, in shape like a kind of spiral

bowl lilies, violets, anemones, and numbers

of other English flowers. We were in a

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