NORTH-WESTERN SZECHUAN 129 



hulling rice. The dust is washed and the gold separated by 

 means of quicksilver. Placer mining is carried out all along 

 this Lungan River by unemployed peasants, but the yield is 

 small. In 1904, when I first journeyed to Sungpan by way of 

 Mien Chou, Chungpa, and Lungan, the officials were endeavour- 

 ing to put a stop to placer mining. Placards were posted 

 forbidding the people to wash for gold, on the ground that 

 landslips were caused through the rerrioval of the rocks, etc., 

 on the foreshore. 



From Hsueh-po to Shui-ching-pu is said to be 60 li. The 

 valley which we traversed is all under cultivation ; farmsteads 

 are general after Peh-mu chiao is reached. Alder, Walnut, and 

 Poplar are the common trees, with Pear, Plum, and Peach 

 trees around houses. In a garden I saw one magnificent speci- 

 men of the Crepe Myrtle {Lagerstrcemia indica), 25 feet tall, 

 2| feet girth, just one luxuriant mass of carmine-red flowers. 

 Here and there the moist rocks are beautifully carpeted with 

 ferns, Woodwardia radicans, Blechnum ehurneum, and Maiden- 

 hair being particularly rampant. The Buddleia and Hydran- 

 gea, previously mentioned, are abundantly present, and were a 

 wealth of pleasing flowers. 



At Shui-ching-pu we joined the highway between Lungan 

 Fu and Sungpan. The intrepid Captain W. J. Gill,i in June 

 1877, was the first Occidental to traverse this route. Since 

 that date several travellers and missionaries have been over 

 this road, but the total is small. 



My first journey over this highway was, as mentioned 

 above, in 1904. At that time I had no camera, and the 

 recollection of the wonderful scenery had much to do with 

 my second journey to these parts in 1910. I saw the country 

 through the eyes of a botanist, and for this reason I hope a 

 continuance of this narrative will prove justifiable. 



Leaving Shui-ching-pu about 7 a.m., we saunteringly 

 covered the 50 H to Hsao-ho-ying by 4 p.m. The road ascends 

 the left bank of the stream for some 20 odd li to a point just 

 above the small village of Yeh-tang. At this place the river is 

 joined by another of nearly equal size on its right bank. A 

 by-road ascends this tributary and leads across the mountains 



1 River of Golden Sand. 

 VOL. I, — 9 



