2б4 SUDDEN RAINFALL AND FLOOD. 



daytime a desert-like stillness pervades everything. 

 In conclusion, we may remark that both in flora 

 and fauna this range has a greater affinity to the 

 Kan-su than to the In-shan system. 



In such arid mountains as these one would have 

 supposed that we should not have incurred the 

 slightest risk from water ; but fate willed that we 

 should experience every misfortune which can pos- 

 sibly overtake the traveller in these countries, for, 

 without giving us the slightest warning, a deluge, 

 such as we never remember to have seen, swept 

 suddenly down upon us. 



It was on the morning of the 13th July; the 

 summits of the mountains were enveloped in mist, a 

 sure indication of rain. Towards midday, however, 

 it became perfectly clear and gave every promise of 

 a fine day, when, three hours later, all of a sudden, 

 clouds began to settle on the mountains, and the 

 rain poured down in buckets. Our tent was soon 

 soaked through, and we dug small trenches to drain 

 off the water which made its way into the interior. 

 This continued for an hour without showing any 

 signs of abatement, although the sky did not look 

 threatening. The rainfall was so great that it was 

 more than could be absorbed by the soil or retained 

 on the steep slopes of the mountains ; the conse- 

 quence was that streams formed in every cleft and 

 gorge, even falling from the precipitous cliffs, and 

 uniting in the principal ravine, where our tent hap- 

 pened to be pitched,^ descended in an impetuous 



' Our ravine was two miles long and only 350 feet wide ; it was 

 hemmed in on all sides by steep slopes and precipitous rocks. 



