monastery itself at length, through a grove of ancient pine-trees, 2,500 feet above the level of the sea. Inside the main entrance sit four colossal images of the protectors of the Buddhist faith. Ku-Shan monastery, like almost all such edifices in China, is made up of three great detached buildings, set one behind the other, in a spacious paved courtyard ; and opening inwards from the walls which surround this enclosure, we may see the apart- ments of the monks. At this shrine a number of relics of Buddha are shown, and it is said that they annually draw crowds of weary pilgrims from afar. Sacred animals too are maintained in the grounds, and if there be any member of the brute creation that has shown more than usual instinct, it will find a welcome reception here.
The "Three Holy Ones," the chief images of every Buddhist temple, were here as conspicuous as usual in the central shrine ; each figure being in this instance more than thirty feet in height, and rising up behind the customary altar bespread with cande- labra and votive offerings of various sorts.
I remained three days in this place, and occupied some of my leisure in visiting the rooms of the priests, one among them more frequently than the rest. Having mounted the ladder by which access to this chamber was to be gained, we entered a bare apartment, lit by a small window above and furnished with a deal table and a chair. Within I was always certain to find some member of the order improving himself by sitting like an image, meditating on the precepts of his sect, and at long intervals tolling a bell suspended in a tower above. Then again, some distance from the central temple, in one of the many beautiful avenues on the mountain-side, was a water-bell, that could be heard tolling there night and day. Against the foot of one of the rocks a small hut had been constructed. One
