SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 



season was no light task. The precipitous sides 

 forced us to keep to the bed, and the wide stream, 

 flowing from side to side of the valley, necessitated 

 frequent crossings. As it was in a semi-frozen 

 condition, this was dangerous work. Once my 

 wife narrowly escaped the horrible fate of being 

 swept under the ice. It was only the agility of 

 her pony in bounding clear of the breaking ice 

 and rushing torrent that saved her. 



More than once it was necessary personally to 

 wade through the icy water in order to find a firm 

 bottom for the passage of the mules and ponies. 

 The natives neither dared nor could be trusted 

 to do this, preferring always to allow the mules 

 to take their chance of crossing with dry loads, 

 while they themselves found safe passage where 

 the ice would stand their weight. 



On December 8, after one or two short halts 

 en route to try and pick up a few specimens, 

 or to check up the compass traverse, we reached 

 Tsing-lo Hsien. 



Here we stayed till December 14, while I tried 

 to trap some pikas and wolves. I secured two 

 of the former, but was unsuccessful with the latter. 



Leaving Tsing-lo Hsien, we continued up the 

 valley of the Fen Ho for another ten miles, when, 

 after spending the night at Yung-an-cheng, we 

 turned westward up a side valley, reaching a place 

 named Wu-chia-kou at the edge of some magni- 

 ficent forested country. Here we decided to 



43 



