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[[underlined]] Chapter I. [[/underlined]]
2.

Yangtze River. Our journey from Shanghai to Nanking confirmed the impression which I had previously gained --- that while the region was undoubtedly one of great historical importance, excavation there would be little more practicable than in other alluvial areas, as for instance the delta of the Nile. However, the otherwise level surface is broken here and there by detached rocky hills; and it seemed to me that these, if examined in detail, should disclose traces of ancient occupation. This has however, as far as I know, never been undertaken under scientific conditions.
We next inspected the area in the vicinity of Chi'i Hsia Chou 棲霞州, some 20 miles east of Nanking, with its remarkable sculptures dating from the 6th century A.D. These consist of a series of magnificent winged lions, fluted columns, and stelae supported on the backs of gigantic stone tortoises --- all originally erected in front of certain family tombs of the Liang Dynasty (502-556 A.D.). We found also, in a fold of the hills slightly to the southeast of these, across the railway, at the Buddhist temple of the Chi'i Hsia Ssŭ 棲霞寺, a white stone pagoda, richly carved (pl. 1, fig. 1), which the monks informed us was built during the Sui Dynasty (581-617 A.D.). It had been badly damaged by the Taiping rebels about the middle of the 19th century, when also they blew up the well known pagoda at Nanking commonly called the "Porcelain Tower".
From Nanking we proceeded by steamer still farther up the great river. The portion of the Yangtze valley through which we were now traveling had ever since the middle of the 1st millennium B.C. played a rôle of first-rate importance in Chinese history. Local inquiries and explorations, together with a study of the ancient records, indicated