28 BO AD TO CHANG-YANG 



such as I was in search of might be foil i id at three 

 days' journey south of Ichang, in the district of Chang- 

 yang, where the forest was of considerable extent, and 

 where also he had a house. I therefore determined to 

 make an expedition to see if the country l^ore out his 

 description, and accordingly set out on the morning of 

 October 7, 1887, with three coolies and a cook, who 

 also acted as interpreter. My journey was made partly 

 on foot and partly in a chair. After crossing the river 

 and traversing the flat country on the banks I entered 

 a valley, and found my first sleeping station on a small 

 hill called Shih-te-yah, twenty miles from the start. 

 Here I found the country beginning to get interesting 

 to a naturalist. On starting the next morning I found 

 the road at first descended slightly, and now the pine 

 trees appeared growing in clumps in a soil of a rufous- 

 brown colour. These were the first coniferous trees 

 met with, and I now entered a valley of great l3eauty, 

 which was studded with precipitous knolls crowned 

 with a few firs and thick undergrowth. This vallev 

 trends to the westward for seven miles, and one passes 

 through shady copses of graceful bamboo, some being 

 nearly a mile long. As I proceeded the vegetation 

 became much more varied, and patches of cultivated 

 ground were met with. It had every appearance of 

 being rich in entomological species, and I determined to 



