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[[underline]] Chapter XI. [[/underline]] 23^[[7]].

In any case the Chin Shan sculptured grottoes, granting that they ever had a real existence, still await discovery.

[[underline]] Visit to the Yün Kang Cave-Temples. [[/underline]]
  The following morning, April 17th, witnessed the arrival of the saddle-horses that the magistrate, Mr. Yü, had been seeking for us.  We at once set out on them for the Buddhist cave-temples at Yün Kang, a dozen miles or so west of Ta T'ung.  These I had already visited several times but Mr. Wenley had never seen.  I was anxious that he should have an opportunity of inspecting them and their wonderful carvings; and I wished also to inquire further into the feasibility of my plan for clearing away the debris at the foot of the cliffs and uncovering the examples of Northern Wei sacred sculpture which I felt certain must lie buried there (see pages 5 [[underline]] sq. [[/underline]] ).
  We reached Yün Kang about noon and were welcomed by the lone priest in charge, whom I had known since 1917.  After lunching, we spent the rest of the day in a more careful examination than I had yet been able to give to the condition of the remarkable grottoes and their immediate surroundings.  The bases and lower portions of the cliffs were partly obscured---sometimes, indeed, quite hidden---behind a jumble of low mud huts.  Of these, many were built directly against the face of the rock; several even of the grottoes themselves had been turned into habitations or stables.  In not a few instances the squatters had defaced fine old carvings, either wantonly or else by chiseling in them mortises or sockets for building timbers; while the smoke from their  hearth-fires had begrimed and destroyed what color there was left in paintings on the walls and ceilings.  I felt certain that once his attention had been drawn to such vandalism, Gov. Yen would be only too glad to coöperate with us in efforts to preserve such relics of a truly