CHAPTER \ III 



SOME NOTES ON CAVES AND THE HOME OF THE 



TAKIN 



I AM ready to take Dr. Smith's opinion on any 

 matter relating to China, save only as regards 

 caves and the gastronomical qualities of musk 

 deer ! " Ah ! " he said ; " wait till you get to the 

 cave ! Beautifully dry inside, a grand outlook, 

 and good shelter ! " I have always longed to sleep 

 in a cave. I suppose every boy has. " There is 

 nobody under thirty so dead but his heart will 

 stir a little at the siglit of a gypsies' camp," and 

 when one becomes a gypsy oneself the feeling is 

 so far intensified as to render, for the time, no 

 other life worth the living. What I wanted 

 was just such a cave as the doctor described. 

 I had pictured it all a hundred times. Tlie 

 grey rocks ; the couch of fir boughs ; the leaping 

 flames of the camp fire ; the strange figures of 

 the native hunters, now red and strong in the 

 glare, now hidden in the shadows ; grinning skulls 

 in one corner ; the clarity of dawn in the moun- 

 tains ; the solemn gathering of the shadows at 

 evening. How seldom does anticipation accord 

 with the reality ! The doctor knew the cave in 

 winter, and we occupied it in midsummer ! The 

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