250 ' KUiXG-GURESSU; OR BEAR. 



Upon arriving in Kan-su in the summer of 1872, 

 we offered a reward of five lans to anyone who 

 would show us where one of these fabulous beasts 

 could be found. Nobody, however, came forward, 

 to impart the desired information ; unless that the 

 Tangutan, who was acting temporarily as our guide, 

 did certainly say that the kiing-giiressu inhabited 

 the rocks on Mount Gadjur. But on our repairing 

 to that sacred mountain, in the middle of August, 

 we saw no trace of the extraordinary animal, and 

 almost despaired of ever seeing one, when one day 

 I heard that a skin might be seen at a little temple 

 about ten miles from Chertinton, Hither we pro- 

 ceeded after a few days, and having made a present 

 to the superior, requested him to show us the rare 

 skin. The request was granted, when what was my 

 astonishment to see, instead of some extraordinary 

 animal, a small bear-skin stuffed with straw ! All 

 the stories we had heard were after all a pack of 

 fables, and the narrators, after listening to my as- 

 surances that this creature was none other than a 

 bear, declared that the ktmg-guressiL never showed 

 itself to people, and that its tracks alone were oc- 

 casionally seen by huntsmen. This bear, whose skin 

 I now saw, stood 4^ feet high ; the muzzle pro- 

 truding ; the head and forepart of the body a dirty 

 white colour ; the back darker, and the paws almost 

 black ; the hind feet long and narrow, and the claws 

 about an inch long, blunt, and of a dark colour. 

 Unfortunately I could not take more accurate mea- 



