Up the Mekong Valley 47 
person. Moreover Kin and Sung, who were both excellent 
fellows, did not get on with him at all, and personally I 
never took to him, so that he left unwept, Sung taking 
his place as cook, while Kin accompanied me on my 
expeditions up the mountains. 
During the twelve days we were in this neighbourhood 
I explored the gullies and barrier range without much 
success. It was impossible to get far up the streams, 
where many interesting plants occurred, on account of 
precipices and gorges, while on the other hand the exposed 
slopes offered little of novelty. One day however Gan-ton 
led us over the barrier range, and so down into the valley 
beyond, above the fall; and at once we were in a new 
world. From the pass (10,000 ft.) we looked down over 
dense forests of rhododendrons, great trees thirty feet 
high, many of them in full bloom; higher up more forests 
of fir stretched out dark tongues towards the pyramidal 
peaks still white with snow, and to the east we could see 
across the Mekong valley to the snow-covered mountains 
of the Mekong-Yang-tze watershed. 
Descending a steep path, we found a rich undergrowth 
coming up, but there was as yet scarcely anything in flower, 
though the place promised well, and eventually reaching a 
clearing where a small hut had been erected close beside 
the torrent, we halted for lunch. 
By following up this valley Gan-ton informed us, we 
could cross the Mekong-Salween watershed, and reach 
Tsam-p‘u-t‘ong on the latter river, and | straightway decided 
to make the journey as soon as the pass was open, about 
the first week in June; for it was evident that here right 
before us was a wonderful wealth of alpine flowers. 
On the way down we stopped at a mountain hut for 
refreshments, a simple one-roomed shanty, and I watched 
the men make their tea, though personally I drank yak milk. 
The water was boiled in a big iron pot suspended over 
the fire, and a handful of coarse tea, sliced off a round 
brick, thrown in. After being well stirred, the liquid was 
poured through a conical basket-work funnel into a tall 
wooden cylinder bound with bamboo hoops; in the funnel 
had been placed a lump of butter which, melting and 
passing through the tea leaves with the hot tea, now swam 
