SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 



Near Yen-an Fu we noticed that there were 

 many dense thickets, consisting chiefly of the 

 thorny wild jujube (Zizyplus saliva spinosa) 

 along the Yen-shui valley, so we decided to stop 

 and spend a few days in collecting. Our efforts 

 met with immediate success, so that we prolonged 

 our stay in the vicinity. We secured one new 

 species and three new sub-species of rodents, 

 besides several already well-known forms. 



Each morning ere it was light we would sally 

 forth with satchel and shot-gun to inspect our 

 traps, set the night before. Bringing in the 

 specimens secured, we would spend the rest of the 

 day till mid-afternoon in skinning and preparing 

 our day's haul, after which we would once more 

 go out to look over the traps, or set new ones. 



The new species referred to above was a pika 

 (Ochoton abedfordi), a small rabbit-like rodent, 



Many villages along the high road were deserted, such of the 

 inhabitants as had escaped death having betaken themselves 

 to hastily built stockades in the highest loess hills, while 

 the towns were continually menaced by robber hordes and 

 lawless bands of the dreaded Ko Lao Hui (Elder Brother 

 Society). 



Since that date no word of the prevailing conditions in 

 North Shensi has reached the outside world, but it is highly 

 probable that the already scanty population has been still 

 further reduced by sword and famine, and that large stretches 

 of country under cultivation at the time of the writer's 

 first visit to this district, now lie a wilderness — a refuge for 

 the increasing coveys of game, and a hiding place for robber 

 bands. — A. de C. S. 



II 



