angles to that just quitted, was very steep and rough, but it was negotiated 
without mishap. Mi-yiieh-ch’éng, distant from Tsa-k’ou about nineteen 
miles, was reached in the afternoon, and we encamped in a grassy field close 
to the village. 
From Mi-yiieh-ch’éng the road ran southward up the valley, the country 
becoming wilder and the mountains higher with each succeeding mile, until at 
last the valley narrowing and changing direction we began to ascend, west- 
wards again, to another high pass. Here an altitude of nearly 8000 feet was 
attained, lofty forest-clad peaks rising still higher to right and left. A descent 
of about 1000 feet brought us into the Mo-an valley, and a camping-ground 
was chosen in a sheltered ravine at the foot of a mountain named Yiin-t’ing 
Shan (‘ Cloud-roof Mountain”). No village was passed during this day’s 
march ; only here and there a cluster of two or three huts, and the muleteers 
were forced to go on down the valley for about five miles to a village, where 
they could stable their mules. The grooms, however, managed to find 
sufficient accommodation for the ponies in the cattle-sheds of a tiny hamlet 
across the valley, near the camp. 
The ravine chosen for the camp was comparatively wide, and opened 
towards the north, so that astronomical observations could be made 
comfortably. Towards the south it soon narrowed, ascending rapidly at the 
same time until lost in the forest-clad slopes of Yiin-t’ing Shan. The ridge to 
which this mountain belongs runs east and west, commencing with a series of 
peaks, heavily covered with forests of larch and fir, and diminishing in size till 
they merge into the shale and loess foothills, and terminating in the supreme 
grey granite crest of Mo-érh Shan. From its base again branch out several 
lower ridges, of which the largest, curving towards the south, splits into a 
number of sharp peaks. As a rule, the slopes facing north are clothed in 
dense forests of pine, spruce, larch, and birch, interspersed with patches of 
impenetrable hazel scrub, whilst the slopes facing south are grassy, or covered 
with low herbaceous growth. The forests commence at about 7500 feet, and 
extend to the summits of the ridges. At the season of our visit the larch’s 
autumn foliage of bright gold and the coppery tints of the hazel stood out in 
striking contrast to the deep blue-green of spruce and pine. 
A trip was made during our stay in camp to the summit of Mo-érh Shan 
for the purpose of taking a round of angles to check the plane-table work. 
From this point the panorama that stretched itself before us was magnificent 
in the extreme. In every direction winding valleys threaded by sparkling 
streams; granite crests and rugged scaurs, all ablaze with colour; and, as a 
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