A Winter Journey amongst the Lutzu 185 
The men had selected three magnificent Cunninghamia 
trees for the encampment, and here we had three fires, one 
for Kin and myself, one for the three Tibetan porters, and 
one for the Lutzu porter who was now joined by a friend 
also returning to his home on the Salween, thus bringing 
the strength of our party up to seven. It is a curious fact 
that the Tibetans and Lutzu will not eat or sleep round the 
same fire, as I remarked on both journeys. Returning 
from the Salween we had as porters four Lutzu and one 
Tibetan, the latter always selecting the best place available, 
usually near me, leaving the Lutzu by themselves some 
yards distant; from which I conclude that the Tibetans 
look down on the Lutzu as an inferior tribe. 
In spite of a thick mass of vines and other creepers 
hanging from the giant trees above us, it was impossible 
to place my bed under shelter, and a fine drizzle filtered 
through on top of me. I awoke at an early hour, feeling 
very cold. The water in the buckets was coated with ice 
and a hard frost lay on the ground, and no sooner did I get 
out of bed than my feet and hands were numb with cold. 
We were off before the sun topped the ridge, the dead 
leaves frozen stiff crackling merrily under foot, everything 
white with rime. Before long the frost-bound path was 
under snow which grew rapidly deeper, but though soft, it 
was not of sufficient depth to cause us much inconvenience 
till the last thousand feet up to the pass was reached. 
The temperate rain forest now looked its best. For 
the most part the trees were evergreen conifers, firs with 
occasional clumps of Cunnznghamza and other species, but 
down by the stream were birches, alders, and maples, marked 
as spots of gold, orange, and red which, in the light of the 
rising sun, seemed to fill the dark forest with a rich mellow 
glow pervading everything, and very beautiful. With the 
thaw, the leaves came whirling down in their hundreds, 
rustling softly, and, catching the first sunbeams, sent shafts 
of coloured light twinkling and dancing down the woodland 
glades. Immense skeletons of Lzdzum giganteum rose 
stiffly on either hand, some of them ten feet high and 
bearing a dozen or more big capsules which were slowly 
scattering their useless seeds, for so far as I could make 
out, this plant, though producing many thousands of seeds 
