FROM TALI TO TSEKOU 



osier basket with tlie other hand. The fish thus landed averaged 

 about 8 inches long, the breast and belly were broad and the head 

 flat, with a wide mouth like a dog-fish. The flesh was palatable. 



It was on leaving the shingle camp that the real struggle 

 began against obstacles more formidable than we had yet en- 

 countered. The path got worse and worse, and the men had to 

 precede the mules, pick in hand, and break a track across the 

 shoot of rubble and loose stones. By this means we won a pre- 

 carious foothold, though in some places the projecting crags 

 thrust us out over dangerous declivities. Stepping cautiously in 

 Indian file, we escaped any worse accident than the fall of one 

 mule, which luckily recovered itself unhurt. 



The valley flora was unlike that of the 5,000-feet plateaux 

 we had traversed. Here the trees had dense foliage, their lower 

 boughs often covered with fruit ; acacias grew close, and fig-trees 

 smothered in gigantic creepers and a broad-leaved moss. On 

 every side were orchids, and ferns with spiral fronds twining 

 round the central stem. The prolific forest teemed with plants 

 of rare grace and tropical profusion. But its sunless depths and 

 rank undergrowth exhaled miasma and a fever-laden moisture ; so 

 that, although the temperature was not high, we perspired in the 

 damp heat at each heavy step, and breathed a tepid vapour that 

 made us believ'e the reputation for insalubrity given by the Chinese 

 to the valley of the Salwen. 



Our camp of the 29th (June) was still by the torrent. Our 

 men had exhausted their provisions — a lesson to them to be more 

 provident, and to attend to our orders that they should always 

 carry three or four days' supplies. Fortunately, we had a ham 

 and some rice to share with them. In the morning, as I went 

 to bathe in the river, I discovered a liana bridge swung from 



155 



