22 On the Lt-ti-p ing 
have, or at all events imagine that they have, vested rights 
in the river bed. 
On April 14 I decided to give the men a day’s rest. We 
had pitched our camp in a delightful grove of trees, just 
above the river, and the day being fine, Kin and I set out 
to climb to the summit of the ridge immediately west of us. 
However, after reaching an altitude of over 10,000 feet 
progress was stopped by the limestone precipices which 
crowned the ridge, and finding deep snow still lying in the 
corries, and no sign of spring as yet, we returned to the 
warmth of the valley. | 
On the downward journey we came across some 
pheasant springes of a kind seen in many parts of the 
world—a running noose attached to a bent bamboo held 
down by a catch, which on being released at once flies up 
and suspends the struggling bird in the air. 
Next day, our last by the Kin-sha, we went on to 
Chi-tien, a semi-Tibetan village of no importance, passing 
through groves of Chionanthus trees in full bloom, a 
glorious sight. They seem fond of the rockiest places 
down by the river side, and are often to be seen hanging 
far out over the water. 
For the last three days we had been passing a good 
deal of opium poppy—not solid fields of it such as I had 
seen in one or two places between T’eng-yueh and Tali, 
even on the main road, but scattered plants occurring 
amongst fields of white and mauve peas, which served 
admirably to mask their presence, and there can be little 
doubt that these poppies were deliberately sown amongst 
the peas so that seed might be kept against better times. 
Under an able and powerful Viceroy Yunnan, like several 
other provinces of the Empire, had almost rid itself of 
opium, but before the work was completed, there had been 
a change in the administration, the present Viceroy being 
not only a weak ruler, but an opium smoker himself ; hence 
poppy cultivation, though still showing a substantial de- 
crease since the opium edict, had made a considerable 
advance again during the preceding season. It is hardly 
fair, however, to compare Yunnan with any other opium- 
growing province, since the conditions are totally dissimilar. 
The Yunnan plateau is by no means suitable for all crops, 
