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[[underlined]] Chapter XIV. [[underlined]] 307. all sides unless protected by mantlets, or perhaps by some sort of wooden par^[[a]]pet (for which there seemed hardly room). The distances between towers varied considerably; but in all cases it was much too great to have been spanned by a bridge of any kind. Hence any defenders of the outer towers would have been wholly cut off from support by troops garrisoning the Wall itself. If, on the other hand, the towers had been intended for beacons or lookouts rather than outlying defensive works, even the ones farthest from the line of the Wall seemed too close to it to have been of much service. With some difficulty I managed to climb one of them, about 18 feet high, and found that it commanded no distant view, in any direction. What their purpose was, therefore, I was at a loss to understand. After our inspection of the Great Wall we rode back to the village and had lunch with Mr. Wang, whom we had left to look after things in our absence. The afternoon we spent in further examination of the temple. Some carved and decorated stonework about the main entrance seemed not to be in its original position, but to have been re-used; it looked quite archaic in style and appeared to be considerably older than the Ming period when the temple was said to have been founded. Within the edifice itself we found other objects of art, including stone sculptures, wall-paintings, and the like, obviously provincial but, considering the remoteness of the locality, of really quite good quality. There very probably were other works of similar character in the main hall; but this was kept locked, and we did not seek admission, our purpose in coming out to the Fang Shan being primarily that of trying to excavate. That evening we had another long talk with some of the chief villagers, but could not persuade them to alter their position. Mr. Tung had not yet returned from Ta T'ung; but knowing his resourcefulness, I was not