“ afped which diftinguiih the temple o f Poo-fa, in the rock of
“ ^ uan-gin-Jhan.” Difmal as this gloomy den appeared to be,
where a few miferable beings had voluntarily chained them-
felves to a rock, to be gnawed by the vultures o f fuperftition
and fanaticifm, it is ftill lefs fo than an apartment o f the Fran-
cifcan convent in Madeira, the walls .o f which are entirely covered
with human ikulls, and the bones o f legs and arms,
placed alternately in horizontal rows. A dirty lamp fufpended
from the ceiling, and conftantly attended by an old bald-headed
friar o f the order, to keep the feeble light juft glimmering in
the focket, ferves to fhew^ndiftindly to ftrangers this difguft-
ine memento mori. It would btr'fliilicult to O determine which of
the three were the moft ufelefs members o f fociety, the monks
o f Poo-fa, the monks o f the Cork convent, or the monks o f
Golgotha.
In feveral places among the wild and romantic mountains
through which we were carried on this river, we noticed quarries
o f great extent, out o f which huge ftones had been cut for
fepulchral monuments, for the arches o f bridges, for architraves,
for paving the ftreets, and for various other ufes. T o obtain
thefe large mafies, thefaw is applied at the upper furface, and
they work down vertically to the length required. Each
ftone is fliaped and faihioned to the fize that may be wanted,
before it is removed from the parent rock, by which much
difficulty is avoided and lefs power required in conveying it
to its deftination. Rude mislhapen blocks, requiring additional
labour for their removal, are never detached from the rock in
fuch a ftate. In this'refpeCt they are more provident than the
late
late Empreis o f Ruffia who, at an immenfe expence and with
the aid o f complicated machinery, caufed a block o f ftone to
be brought to her capital, to ferve as a pedeftal for the ftatue
o f the Czar Peter, where it was found expedient to reduce it to
two-thirds o f its original dimenfions.
Between the city o f Canton and the firft pagoda on the bank
o f the river, there is a continued feries o f fimilar quarries, which-
appear not to have been worked for many years. The regular and
formal manner in which the ftones have been cut away, exhibiting,
lengthened ftreets o f houfes with quadrangular chambers, in the
fides o f which are fquare holes at equal diftances, as if intended
for the reception o f beams ; the finoothnefs and- perfeit perpendicularity
o f the fides, and the number o f detached pillars that
are fcattered over the plain, would juftify a fimilar miftake to
that of Mr. Addifon’s DoCtor o f one o f the German univer-
fities, whom he found at Chateau d’Un in France, carefully
meafuring the free-ftone quarries at that place, which he had
conceived to be the venerable remains o f vaft fubterranean palaces-
o f great antiquity.
Almoftall the-mountains that occurred in our pafiage through
China were o f primaeval granite, fome few o f fand-ftone, and
the inferior hills were generally o f lime-ftone, or coarfe grey *,
marble. Except the Ladrone iflands on the fouth, and fome
o f the Chufan iflands on the eaft, we obferved no appearances-
in the whole country o f volcanic productions. The high,
mountains, indeed, that form great continental chains are
feldom, i f ever, o f volcanic formation. The prefence o f a
va it