76 A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA 



furious thunderstorm, which arose with amazing suddenness. 

 The fury of the storm spent itself in a torrential downpour of 

 short duration, but rain fell steadily during the rest of the 

 day. The rain did not improve the mud road, and our progress 

 was slow and difficult in consequence. During the whole 

 afternoon we made a steady ascent, skirting the mountain-sides 

 through woods of Pine and Oak. Eventually the road enters 

 a narrow sloping valley, at the head of which we found lodgings 

 for the night in two houses which constitute the hamlet of 

 Shan-chia-kou, having travelled 65 li. Around this place the 

 flora is varied and essentially cool-temperate in character. 

 Bushes of Mock Orange {Philadelphus) were conspicuous on 

 aU sides with their wealth of pure white flowers. The Hautboy 

 strawberry is abundant, and around our hostel I gathered in 

 a few minutes enough of these luscious fine-flavoured white 

 berries to stew for dinner. The Torricellia was again common. 

 It ascends up to 3500 feet altitude, and often forms a smaU 

 inelegant tree. 



We saw very little rice during the day, maize and Irish 

 potato being the chief crops. There is practically no traffic 

 on this road ; the mule-trains seen yesterday evidently came 

 down the road from Chengkou Ting. Population is sparse, and 

 what there is looked strongly addicted to the opium habit. 

 So far, however, we had not seen any signs of poppy. 



A magnificent day ushered in the new month. The morning 

 was bearably hot, but the afternoon scorchingly so. A hundred 

 yards beyond our lodgings we reached the head of a ridge, and 

 an abrupt descent of a couple of thousand feet or so led to a 

 narrow vaUey where much rice, maize, Irish potato, and a 

 little Hemp {Cannabis) are cultivated. The parallel ranges 

 flanking this valley are of limestone with outstanding bare 

 rocks and cliffs, very little cultivated but with good woods of 

 the common Pine. Here and there in the valley we passed fine 

 trees of Sassafras, Sweet Chestnut, Sweet Gum [Liquidamhar) , 

 Chinese Fir, and Poplar. At the head of the valley we made a 

 slight ascent to the top of a ridge. Below us, some 2500 feet, 

 flowed a considerable river waUed in by lofty limestone 

 precipices. It was 10.30 a.m. when we reached the top of 

 this ridge, and the rest of the day's march was a more or less 



