156 Mountain and Monastery ; 
in the case of precipice plants, which may be compared to 
epiphytes. Considering that the winds blow up these 
valleys, the fact that wind-borne seeds should reach such 
high altitudes and gradually colonise ground which may 
have been slowly exposed owing to the retreat of glaciers, 
is quite natural, and I have frequently watched seeds of 
Compositae being whirled up a mountain side 12,000 feet 
above sea-level. On the other hand the mere possession 
of seeds capable of being carried by the wind does not 
enable a plant to establish itself on these inhospitable 
mountains, for neither ZAAz/obzum nor Clematis, to mention 
only two genera which are common at 12,000 feet, has 
representatives in the true alpine region. Nor must it be 
forgotten that the high alpine flora is a north temperate one, 
and has undoubtedly come from the north, though growing 
here in the latitude of Cairo; so that the south winds which 
blow up the deep main valleys as already described cannot 
have added anything to the composition of the flora. 
In the night it rained heavily and turned very cold, so 
I went out and brought my faithful mastiff Ah-poh inside, 
to his great joy. In the morning we ascended the main 
valley and branched off to a pass at the head of another 
hanging valley, about 16,000 feet above sea-level. From 
here we had a fine view of the rocky summit of the ridge 
under deep snow. ‘The Riin-tsi-la, as the pass at the head 
of the main valley is called, was still a long way above us, 
and it was this pass to the Yang-tze that I was most anxious 
to cross. Enormous piles of angular rock fragments sur- 
rounded a small lake at the foot of this hanging valley, 
and here I shot a young marmot. In the evening one of 
Chao’s soldiers turned up with the porters, saying we had 
to return to A-tun-tsi, and as we had got all our seeds in 
and it was extremely uncomfortable in camp in these con- 
stant rains, I acquiesced, and on September 4 we went 
down. 
The village was gay and noisy now, for it was the 
Mohammedan New Year, and no sooner was that over 
than we had a Chinese festival, the narrow street being 
decorated with large lanterns, and o-p‘ans of joss-paper 
burnt outside the houses to the accompaniment of gongs 
and drums. 
