Up the Mekong Valley 43 
rope, and twining his legs round the load, pull it up after 
him. After landing I climbed up the bank and began to 
look about for a convenient camping ground, for it was 
growing dark and threatening rain. Just then a Tibetan 
came along and seeing me he stopped, smiling in friendly 
welcome, and asked me where I was going. I told him 
that I had just arrived from lower down the river and 
intended to camp at Tsu-kou for some days at any rate, 
whereupon he became full of excellent suggestions, pointed 
out a good camping ground ina gully close at hand, and went 
off to his house a few hundred yards distant to get a mule. 
The camping ground which I had adopted at his 
suggestion was a small level corner surrounded by trees 
and boulders, near the bottom of the deep gully referred to, 
down which roared a big torrent from the western range. 
Here was plenty of room for the two tents, and a large 
block of stone near by afforded a deep recess in which 
boxes might be stored out of the rain. I therefore 
descended again to the landing stage, and finding that 
some of the boxes had arrived, Kin and I started carrying 
things up the cliff to the selected spot; it was just dark 
now and rain had begun to fall heavily, so that we hastily 
bundled everything, including a supply of firewood, under 
the rock. Presently my Tibetan friend arrived with his 
mule, and the remaining things were soon brought up from 
below, all the men helping to erect the tents, light the fires, 
set the water boiling and do odd jobs round the camp 
under the glare of pine torches supplied by the Tibetans. 
By this time the rain had ceased and presently the stars 
were shining brightly, and after supper, weary with travel 
and hard work, I turned in and was quickly lulled to sleep 
by the roar of the torrent. 
Next morning I was awake early, and went out to look 
about me while breakfast was being prepared. The small 
flat on which we were encamped was well screened by 
large stranded boulders which had been rolled down by 
the torrent, and was protected by a high bluff. Above the 
torrent the gully was densely clothed with trees and shrubs, 
Viburnums, honeysuckles, Dzervz//a, shrubby euphorbias, 
Celastraceae, barberry, the beautiful Chzonanthus retusus 
with its dense masses of white flowers, magnificent walnut 
