CHAPTER, tI 
ON THE PLATEAU OF YUNNAN 
THE same incidents with only a background of varying 
details fall to the lot of most travellers in the interior of 
China, and I recall nothing very remarkable during the 
fourteen days which elapsed between leaving T’eng-yueh 
and arriving at Tali-fu. The Ambassadors’ Road, as 
it is called, has been well described many times, though 
it is interesting to compare one description with another 
and to note how very different the same journey may 
appear to people whose interests in life are more or less 
different. 
As for me, I have an eye for plants, and take more 
than a passing interest in men and things; and to my 
mind the high plateaux between the deeply-scoured, trench- 
like valleys, now blazing with scarlet rhododendrons and 
pink camellias, afforded such charming landscapes that I 
was almost oblivious of everything else. 
After the mid-day halt, I would leave the men to load 
the animals, and taking my gun, turn aside and wander 
alone amongst the park-like undulating hills, finding here 
sheets of mauve primulas blooming on emerald grassy 
slopes, dog-roses yellow and white, pale-blue irises, and 
other delightful flowers. Flocks of green parrots flashed 
screeching overhead, seeking the red berries of a species 
of mistletoe that grew on the pine trees; gorgeous little 
fly-catchers flitted timidly from bush to bush; and some- 
times I would put up an Amherst’s pheasant, perhaps the 
most magnificent of the tribe, with its handsome tail and 
rainbow neck. Down by the stream one might generally 
find a David’s squirrel frisking amongst the rocks, but 
I saw no other mammals, nor would one expect to by day. 
