MY FOURTH EXPEDITION TO CHINA 167 



at considerable risk, wade through streams, dodge waterfalls and 

 flounder through mud. To end matters, we fetch up for the night 

 at the most miserable of hovels, and as our loads fail to arrive 

 we have to pass the night supperless, with a bare plank for a bed. 

 Luckily I had one blanket with me and with a bundle of ' driers ' 

 (i. e. pads of paper) for a pillow soon got to sleep. About mid- 

 night I was awakened by a rainstorm, to find myself more or less 

 drenched through. There was no really dry spot in the hovel 

 and we passed the rest of the night huddled together around the 

 embers of a small fire. Dawn ultimately broke and the rain 

 finally ceased, to be followed by welcome, life-sustaining sunshine. 

 The scenery in this region is magnificent and in the ravine we are 

 now attempting to explore savage and grand vertical walls of 

 rock, clothed in vegetation, with cascades and waterfalls are 

 everywhere. The stream which flows through the bottom of the 

 ravine is in spate and is simply one roaring, rushing mass of foam 

 and spray. Vegetation is most luxuriant, but an aeroplane would 

 be necessary to properly explore it. The higher slopes are clad 

 with various conifers, all of them fruiting freely to my great de- 

 light. Near the water's edge strong growing herbs abound, and 

 especially striking are Senecios in variety, Astilbe Davidii, and 

 various species of Aconitum. Shrubs are everywhere rampant 

 and wild Roses, Honeysuckles, Spiraeas, Viburnums, and allied 

 plants run riot in species." 



Such then is the nature of the country in far western China 

 and it is only in such inaccessible parts that forests are to be 

 found today. Everywhere in China where it is possible to culti- 

 vate a crop of foodstuffs the forests have been cleared away. But 

 much as we deplore this destruction, it should be borne in mind 

 that necessity and not wantonness has been the cause. If taxed, 

 the Chinese have a more legitimate answer to make in the matter 

 of forest-destruction than we have, and with sorrow we confess it, 

 the people of this country. Here we have squandered our forest 

 wealth in a comparatively few years, and necessity has had less to 

 do with its disappearance than wanton carelessness. The destruc- 

 tion of a country's forests, from no matter what cause, brings 

 condign punishment in its wake. The character of the climate is 

 changed, tending more towards extremes; drought and floods 



