SPOUr AM) SCIENCE ON THE 



was rffi'c'tcd sonic considerable distance tiown 

 stream. 



Continuing westward over barren wind-swept 

 loess ridges for two days, wc reached a busy little 

 town named Sui-tc Chou. Thence we travelled 

 southward for four days along a splendid road, 

 which had rcccntl}- been cut by the Yii-lin Fu 

 garrison. This coimtry was very desolate, con- 

 sisting as it did at that season of bare loess hills 

 inhabited only by occasional coveys of partridges 

 and a few foxes and eagles. 



At a place called Yen-ch'uan Hsien, not far 

 from some recently opened oil wells, we turned 

 westward, and after crossing a steep loess pass, 

 entered the valley of the Yen-shui, the river on 

 whose banks is situated the old town of Yen-an 

 Fu. All the towns and villages we passed were 

 in a sad state of ruin, while the inhabitants were 

 terribly poverty-stricken. The country has not 

 yet recovered from the devastating effects of the 

 great Mohammedan rebellion of the sixties, fol- 

 lowed in 1887 by a protracted famine. It is true 

 that the greater part of the loess hills is under 

 cultivation, but years must elapse before the 

 country regains its former prosperity.^ 



* In the winter of 1911, the writer again visited this 

 distriet, as leader of the Shcnsi Relief Expedition. 



The effects of the Revolution, whieh has been described 

 as being " synonymous with anarchy in Shcnsi," were only 

 too painfully evident. The year's crops were still standing. 



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