Up the Mekong Valley Ky | 
me when [| went into the city with my camera, while the 
children positively ran. Not so the Tibetans however, 
reckless fellows; they would always face the camera for 
the sheer adventure of the thing, nudging each other and 
screaming with laughter, and for a few cash they would 
even dance to the accompaniment of their squeaky bamboo 
fiddles. 
We left Wei-hsi on April 22, and marching down 
stream, camped for the night below Ka-ka-t’ang. The 
hill sides became still more dry and bare as we descended, 
a good deal of purple shale being exposed. Small bushy 
oaks, very prone to attack by a curious mistletoe (Vzscum 
articulatum), with pines and rhododendrons, made up the 
bulk of the flora, and the ride was uninteresting, though 
the small arched bridges of stone, pointed rather than 
rounded, which spanned the tributary torrents such as the 
Ka-ka-t’ang stream, were quaint. 
Continuing next day down a narrow path high above 
the torrent, we caught sight of the Mekong-Salween water- 
shed, still covered with winter snow, framed in the mouth 
of the gorge, and shortly afterwards we descended to the 
Mekong itself. 
Hsiao-wei-hsi, reached the same evening, marks practi- 
cally the southern limit of the rainy belt on the Upper 
Mekong, south of which we enter upon the dry region, 
distinguished in turn from the true arid region to the north 
chiefly by the presence of the ‘spear grass’ (Stipa sp.) 
and a few shrubs. But of these three regions into which 
the Upper Mekong naturally divides itself owing to the 
peculiar distribution of its rainfall, we must say more later. 
The river here flows through a comparatively broad 
valley flanked by double and triple ranges of mountains, 
showing signs of a heavier rainfall than prevails to north 
and south, where the gorges shut in the river again. On 
the left bank, up which lies the road, cultivation is exten- 
sively carried on, rice being by far the most valuable crop ; 
and all the great alluvial fans which have been washed 
down by the torrents on this side are skilfully terraced. 
Wheat, tobacco, cotton, beans, peas, buckwheat, ‘red 
pepper’ (Capszcum), and several kinds of vegetable are all 
grown in lesser quantity ; and hedges of pomegranate, with 
