THE BABBIER 29 



make a station here at the proper season the following 

 year for the purpose of collectino-. After proceeding 

 for about seven miles further I came to some paper 

 mills, where the material manufactured is bamboo. 

 The buildings, or rather huts, were wretched in the ex- 

 treme, but as there was no choice of better, I decided to 

 stop the night. Starting at 7.30 a.m. the next day, the 

 first range of hills was soon met with. The road turned 

 sharply to the left and led nearly due south, the ascent 

 being very steep in some places ; so much so, indeed, 

 that in many places flights of steps had been cut. 



I passed many beautiful gorges and valleys, and hav- 

 ing travelled about fifteen miles over a very up-and-down 

 road, reached a small Chinese village of about 250 huts, 

 but which contained a new native inn, where I took 

 up my quarters, and found it, for a wonder, to be very 

 clean. The highest altitude reached during the day 

 was nearly 3,000 feet, and the village was situated in a 

 valley. 



The next morning, after journeying for an hour 

 along the ordinary road, I arrived at the foot of a high 

 range, which I called afterwards the ' barrier.' I here 

 determined to leave the main road and make the ascent ; 

 but as it was exceedingly steep and precipitous, and the 

 mountain foot-trail very rough and winding, it was 

 necessarv to i>"et additional assistance in carryino- the 



1 o JO 



