CH'IEN-T'ANG RIVER 169 



connection I thought of these lines from 

 Horace : 



For thus the little ant (to human lore 

 No mean example) forms her frugal store, 

 Gathered, with mighty toil, on every side, 

 Nor ignorant, nor careless to provide 

 For future wants. 



Yet, when the stars appear 

 That darkly sadden the declining year, 

 No more she comes abroad but wisely lives 

 On the fair store industrious summer gives. 



The 8th., Qth., and loth., were spent in 

 surveying the country, as it were, for after 

 the closest search, and mile after mile of 

 walking over hills and mountains and the 

 little plains between them, we had failed to 

 make a bag approaching respectability and 

 we retired, on the evening of the ioth., 

 under a downpour of rain and in the face 

 of a heavy gale. The boat was anchored in 

 the shelter of a side creek, near a village 

 called Chong-ka-poa, and there we remain- 

 ed until the weather was more promising 

 and then got under way. On the morning 

 of the nth., we anchored opposite Psiang- 

 ka-poo. Early in the afternoon another 

 attempt was made to find some pheasants, 

 but they were not to be found. The cover 

 of the country we had hunted appeared 

 excellent, and the rice fields between the 



