﻿NO. 2 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I924 35 



Preparations were completed for the trip by the 22d of June, and 

 at daybreak on the morning of the 23d, Mr. Graham and his party, 

 consisting of several Chinese carriers, helpers, skinners, etc., embarked 

 by boat from Suifu. They touched at various minor towns and 

 hamlets by the way, collecting specimens at every opportunity, and 

 reached Kiating, the first place of importance, on the 29th. Frequent 

 and heavy rains fell almost daily, but the party succeeded in register- 

 ing specimens from point to point throughout the journey. From 

 Kiating to Chengtu Mr. Graham's party had an escort of four soldiers, 

 and beyond Chengtu the escort consisted of double this number, who 

 had neither guns nor swords for defense ; yet, withal, the party got 

 through in safety. Chengtu was reached on July 2, after daily stops 

 at small towns and villages. Mowchow. the next place of consequence, 

 was reached on the 9th, the country for some miles on either side of 

 it being semi-arid in nature ; apparently for the time they had passed 

 out of the region of heavy rains. 



The Graham party arrived at Songpan on July 14, after a strenu- 

 ous journey of twenty-two days. During his stay at this place, Mr. 

 Graham found the city was devoid of foreigners, and the native offi- 

 cials would not permit him to venture out of its limits except to the 

 east and south. 



In a letter dated September 3, 1924, Mr. Graham writes : 



The Songpan trip has been taken, and we are safely at Suifu with 50 boxes 

 of specimens, most of which are about ready to be mailed by parcel post. 



This has been a harder and rougher trip than the one to Tatsienlu or any 

 other previous trip. It is much harder to secure food and other necessities 

 around Songpan than at Tatsienlu. There were times when we could purchase 

 no fruit, vegetables, eggs, or meat. At Songpan it was impossible to go west 

 or north, where large mammals are found in abundance, so that the only 

 place we could go was east to the Yellow Dragon Gorge. Even there we had 

 to have an escort of six Chinese soldiers and had of course to pay all their 

 expenses. 



Continuing, he writes : 



The reason we could not go north of Songpan or west of that place was 

 that the Bolotsi aborigines are so savage and so inclined to murder and 

 brigandage that the Chinese can not control them and are afraid of them, 



and the officials could not protect us in those regions Just before we 



returned from Songpan, the Bolotsis attacked a company of Chinese soldiers, 

 killed several of their number, stole several rifles, and drove the scared and 

 defeated soldiers back to their barracks. I have not heard that the Chinese 

 have dared to go into the Bolotsi country with a punitive expedition. 



The catch of mammals is not large. Wa are very sorry about this. It is due 

 primarily to the fact that the mammal-catching districts around Songpan 



