CHAPTER VII. 
MARCH OF DOUGLAS AND GRANT TO LAN-CHOU—DESCRIPTION OF 
LAN-CHOU FU. 
HE other division of the expedition, under Captain Douglas and Mr. 
Grant, had left Yen-an Fu on January 30th, and moving by easy stages 
and with halts of varying duration, reached Lan-chou on April 6th. 
Following the same road as Clark and Sowerby as far south as Fu-chou, 
the caravan then turned westward, ascending almost immediately a long 
slope which led up to some loess plateaux similar to those encountered by the 
others to the east of that town. Ch’ang-ts’un-yi, distant from Fu-chou some 
173 miles, was the first halting place reached after that town was left on 
February 5th. The road, owing to frozen snow and steep gradients, was very 
bad. Bustard were seen on the plateau, but none were secured. 
After resting a day at Ch’ang-ts’un-yi, the march was resumed and 
Hai-shui-ssi was reached on February 7th. This place is nearly seventeen 
miles from Ch’ang-ts'un-yi and is situated in an open fertile valley at an _ 
altitude of a little over 3000 feet. The journey was accomplished without 
difficulty as the road was good. A narrow plateau, reaching an altitude of 
3600 feet, was crossed during the day; but elsewhere the road wound up and 
down ravines and valleys, all of which seemed to unite towards the south. 
The population of Hai-shui-ssii seemed to be about two hundred and fifty. 
On February goth, the border line between Shensi and Kansu was crossed 
soon after leaving Hai-shui-ssti. After travelling for twenty miles along a 
good road through a well wooded country, the caravan reached T’ai-pei-ch’éng, 
a dilapidated village containing scarcely a hundred souls. All along the 
road lay ruined and deserted villages—results, it was ascertained, of the 
Mohammedan rebellion, and the great famine. Most of the people now in 
the district were found to be from Ssiich’uan, and they, but recent 
settlers, had not yet effaced the terrible marks of these ravaging influences. 
Miao-ts’un was reached on February 11th, after a journey through very wild, 
heavily-wooded and almost deserted country. The timber was not large, 
showing that it had only been allowed to grow from a comparatively recent 
date. The distance between this village and T’ai-pei-ch’éng was, by road- 
wheel, seventeen miles. Hazrat Ali shot two roedeer in this country, and 
other game was plentiful. 
