For the first few miles of the road we had the company of Messrs. Coltman 

 and Dello, two Europeans resident in Lan-chou, who came to speed us on our 

 way. The expedition moved eastward until it reached a small place named 

 Hsiao-shui-tzu, situated on the right bank of the Yellow River, which here 

 cuts through thick strata of igneous rock. This was the last we saw for many 

 days of that mighty river, which, having its birth in the eternal snows of the 

 Tibetan highlands, flows through Western Kansu, divides the Ordos from the 

 rest of Mongolia, forms the boundary between the provinces of Shansi and 

 Shensi, and after draining Northern Honan, Southern Chihli, and the Shantung 

 peninsula, ultimately pours its water into the Gulf of Pei-chih-li. 



For the first thirty miles there was ample evidence of heavy rains ; in 

 places the old roads over the loess were completely cut away, new routes 

 having been hastily chosen by recent travellers. Notwithstanding the 

 abundance of water since the middle of June, the crops for the first five days 

 of the journey were in a very poor condition. In many places, instead of the 

 fields of ripening wheat or tall millet, bare, yellow, sun-baked loess alone was 

 visible. From time to time we passed the sawed-up remains of telegraph 

 poles ; and in one place came upon the scene of further depredations com- 

 mitted but a few hours earlier. Poles recently pulled down and stripped of 

 their wire lay about, whilst the fresh tracks of the perpetrators of this mischief 

 must have led to inevitable discovery and arrest in any district adequately 

 policed ; however, here it meant nothing but that another fifteen miles of line 

 had been rendered useless. 



On July 23rd we reached Ching-ning Chou, the first large town since 

 leaving Lan-chou. This town is at the junction of the two roads eastwards ; 

 the one taken by our party leading away to the north-east, that taken by 

 Clark and Douglas leading in a slightly southerly direction. Some successful 

 astronomical observations were made, and Sowerby secured a new polecat, the 

 pet of a market-gardener, from whom it was bought. The little animal was 

 very tame, and submitted with good grace to being photographed. 



On July 24th the expedition left Ching-ning, and after passing through a 

 deep gorge penetrating a range to the north of the city, entered a broad and 

 fertile valley, where the rich crops of cereals afforded a pleasing contrast after 

 the meagre productions of the famine-stricken wilds west of Ching-ning. 

 There was no sign of opium, and this was partly explained by the fact that the 

 inhabitants of the valley were all Mohammedan. Indeed, on this journey it 

 was noticed that, wherever the ordinary Chinese tilled the soil, the best land 

 was devoted usually to the cultivation of the poppy ; whereas the Mohammedans 



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