ABSTRACT
October 30th, I 872.~Rose at cockcrow and left the" clear and cool Woo-tai." Our course lay by the north valley and up the winding Hwa-yen-ling, The view became very fine as we ascended. Poo-sa-ting kept in view all the way up to the top. From that point the North and East Tai may be easily reached. The ascent is gradual, and is uniformly over a brown grassy sod all the ,vay. Much snow was lying on the north face of the various mountains. There is ice there which does not melt in the hottest summer on the side of Chung-tai. On the top above it is a white pagoda. On Pei-tai the view is of overwhelming grandeur, as Mr. Gilmour told rUS, who ascended it yesterday, from the accumulation of peaks of more or less altitude all round. Next to Heng-shan the North Tai is the highest peale in this part of Shanse, and in fact through the province, Hence the large number of visible peaks, presenting the appearance of a vast waving sea of mountains, which impresses the observer at the top of the North Tai. Like it in grandeur is the scene from the East Tai, where at sunrise the sea can be seen far away on the east. The five mountains are called terraces because they are fiat on the top. According to the theory of Pumpelly the valleys are all cut out gradually by the action of water from the plateau, which anciently extended far to the southward of its present Iimits, The Chungtai, Pei-tai, and Tung-tai are linked in one; and perhaps also the Se-tai and Nan-tai. The only deep valley is
probably that by which we entered this sacred seat of Buddhism.
