130 A MOUNTAIN MISCELLANY 



were just tinted by the autumn cold, and against 

 the green of the thickets, burberries made splashes 

 of scarlet. Leaving the river, we crossed a ridge 

 into a large valley running north and south, and 

 travelled south-east all day. It was cooler, for we 

 were about 9,700 feet above sea level ; Choni itself 

 is 8,000 feet. We lunched in a beautiful grove, 

 whilst a water prayer wheel industriously spun at a 

 short distance. It was turned by a small mountain 

 burn which ran into a clear mountain torrent, 

 down which we saw many logsmen steering rafts. 

 They went at a great pace, and managed their 

 rickety-looking crafts with great skill in the rapids. 

 Many places looked ideal ground for roe ; swamps, 

 willows, firs, and rocks. The side valleys were 

 said to be good ground for wapiti. The scenery 

 reminded me very much of the valley of the 

 Beauly and Strathglass, whilst at times we might 

 have been in Japan, Switzerland, or America. 

 All mountain scenery has common characteristics 

 which, when grouped in a certain setting, remind 

 the traveller of places he has seen thousands of 

 miles apart. Right up to Archuen itself, we 

 passed through waving fields of yellow corn. 

 Indeed, in my opinion, this universal continuity of 

 cultivation is one of the great drawbacks to travel 

 in China, extending as it does up to the very 

 haunts of the game. 



The hunters got in some time after our arrival. 

 They had heard a pheasant calling about ten miles 

 from the village, and went to investigate. Some 

 animal, which they thought was a fox, raised its 

 head above a tuft of grass, when they realised it 

 was a large leopard. One of them fired at it with 



