THE LzVND OF THE CROSSBOW 



137 



GROUP OF LISSOO NATIVES: TA-CHU-PA 



The basis of the rock formation of the 

 Sahvin is Hmestone and the strata of the 

 higher slopes are tipped up so as to point 

 to the sky. 



FEW BIRDS BUT MANY TROUBLESOME 

 INSECTS 



Animal and bird life along the Upper 

 Salvvin is conspicuous by its absence — an 

 important matter for the traveler, who 

 cannot count on replenishing his larder 

 with game. On the other hand, the river 

 banks at a low altitude, and where wholly 

 sheltered from the northwest winds, have 

 an almost tropical climate, and as the re- 

 sult vegetable and insect life is both vig- 

 orous and troublesome. Creatures with 

 inconveniently long legs plunge suddenly 

 into one's soup, great caterpillars in splen- 

 did but poisonous uniforms of long and 

 gaily-colored hairs arrive in one's blan- 

 kets with the business-like air of a guest 

 who means to stay. Ladvbirds and other 

 specimens of coleoptera drop off the jun- 

 gle down one's neck, while other unde- 



sirables insert themselves under one's 

 nether garments. 



The light in the tents attracts a perfect 

 army of creatures, which creep, fly, crawl, 

 buzz, and sting. Scissor insects make the 

 day hideous with their strident call, and 

 the proximity of Lissoo coolies introduces 

 other strangers, of which Pitlc.v irritans 

 is by far the least noxious. The mere act 

 of walking in this country is a work of 

 much physical exertion. The villages 

 under the Chinese chiefs have a laudable 

 custom of cutting out their roads every 

 year after securing their harvest, but in 

 the country north of Cheng-ka constant 

 feuds between neighboring villages pre- 

 vent this useful work ; the paths are nar- 

 row tracks choked with the luxuriant 

 growth of the previous rains, slippery 

 and lop-sided, and as often as not leading 

 along the very brink of a precipice. In 

 some places we had to haul ourselves 

 over boulders by pendant branches or 

 scramble along the face of cliffs by 

 notches in the rock, work suitable for 



