i62 A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA 



regions. At the lowest estimate at least a thousand stags are 

 killed every year for their horns in velvet. 



The Chinese consider these horns, called " Lu-jung," an 

 extraordinarily valuable medicine, possessing wonderful tonic 

 and aphrodisiac properties. This is evidenced by the almost 

 fabulous prices they will pay for them. In the Imperial 

 Maritime Customs returns for igio, under Hankow, is the item : 

 " 93 pairs of young Deer Horns ; value, Tls. 8090." (Tl. i 

 =2S. 9d. approx.) Western pharmacologists may say there 

 is no virtue or medicinal value in these horns, but John 

 Chinaman believes otherwise, and is willing to pay the price, 

 high and extortionate as it may be. 



The leg sinews of these Deer are also of considerable 

 medicinal value and are exported in quantity from the far 

 west. Shed horns are valued for making medicinal glue, used 

 in mixing pills, etc. There is a large trade in these, the annual 

 exports from Tachienlu alone being estimated at 30,000 catties, 

 valued at Tls. 8500. 



In every medicine shop of note, in every village and town 

 throughout the length and breadth of China, Deer horns are 

 in evidence. In Szechuan and other wealthy regions they are 

 abundantly so. If one inquires in the east and central parts 

 of China where they come from, the answer received is invari- 

 ably Chungking and Yunnan. At Chungking it is always 

 Yunnan and Thibet. West of the Min River one begins to 

 close up to the question pretty quickly. Coolies laden with 

 Deer horns are frequently met with on all the roads leading 

 from the far west of Szechuan. Tachienlu, Sungpan, and other 

 towns mentioned on page 161 are all trade entrepots, and are 

 fed from the surrounding country. 



The highlands of Thibet proper probably contribute to 

 this trade, but the headquarters is the wild, almost unknown, 

 region lying between the Upper Min River, the Chiench'ang 

 Valley, and the frontier of eastern Thibet. This is a region 

 of high mountain ranges where virgin forests of great size 

 still remain. The upper limits of these forests are the home 

 of these Deer. These haunts are very difficult of access, and 

 very few foreigners have had opportunity of shooting these 

 Deer, consequently information is most meagre. 



