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[[/underline]] Chapter XVI. [[/underline]]  347.

page 68).  Our informants also admitted that they occasionally uncovered vessels, of pottery (which they usually smashed) and even of bronze (which they sold).  In this connection they stated that some time before, certain of their number had plowed up in the southeastern section of the site (see plan) [[/strikethrough]] pl. CXXVIII [[/strikethrough]] a brown earthenware jar (whether glazed or not, they disagreed) containing between 2000 and 3000 copper [[/underline]] cash [[/underline]] of the Eastern Han period; but that both the coins and the fragments of the jar (which they had of course broken up) had long since disappeared.  In general, however, perhaps to discourage us from doing any digging of our own, they declared the site so waterlogged, the moisture so near the surface, that it was impracticable to dig into it very deeply anywhere.
The last statement seemed to us to conflict with an account which they also gave us of their discovery, the year before our visit ([[/underline]] i.e., [[/underline]] in 1925), while sinking a well in the same part of the enclosure (see plan again), of a huge log, about 20 feet beneath the present surface of the soil.  The log, they told us, was 3 feet in diameter and lay prostrate; it had turned quite black with age and dampness, but seemed to show marks of having been worked with metal tools. Apart from the depth at which they claimed to have found it---a depth far below that of the present water-table hereabout---their account of the incident was very circumstantial and plausible. (312) Possibly the peasants, during their well-dig-
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(312) Thus the [[underlined]] Yü kung [[/underlined]], in its account of the regions along the middle and lower Yangtze, emphasizes the great size of their trees and the damp and marshy character of their soil.  For example it says (Pt. I, sect. 6): "Its [[[underlined]] i.e. [[/underlined]], the district of Yang's] trees are lofty, its soil moist and miry" [[8 Chinese characters]]
The [[underlined]] Shuo wên [[/underlined]] dictionary defines [[underlined]] ni [[/underlined]] [[Chinese character]] (in the above sentence) as "Black earth in the midst of water [[6 Chinese characters]]. A better description of the nature of the country along the Yangtze below the Gorges could hardly be written today, save that the great trees are practically gone.
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ging operations, had been able to keep their shaft sufficiently clear of water to let them complete their task.

Transcription Notes:
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