SPORT AND SCIENCE ON THE 
prepared to face all the rigors of winter travel 
through a practically unknown country. 
This was no light undertaking for a woman 
used to all the comforts and luxuries of the European 
settlements in the East. We would be entirely 
dependent upon Chinese inns, often mere hovels, 
for shelter from the bitter cold, while, even allow- 
ing for a good supply of stores, the food must 
often be of the roughest. Nevertheless, my wife 
refused to be dissuaded by sympathetic but 
sceptical friends from her purpose of accompanying 
me. 
We hired seven mules to carry our outfit, and 
engaged a groom, a cook and two boys to act as 
servants. We ourselves would travel on horse- . 
back, for which purpose I secured three good 
Mongol ponies. 
Our outfit was as good as could be secured for 
the work in hand, and everything promised a suc- 
cessful trip. 
On November 25 our little caravan left T’ai- 
yiian Fu by the west gate, and crossing the Fén 
valley, we entered the mountains due west of the 
city. 
Travelling very slowly, we followed the same 
route as that taken by the Clark Expedition as 
far as Ku-chao, thirty miles west of T’ai-yiian Fu. 
At this point we turned northward up the Fén 
Ho. 
Journeying up the course of the river at this 
42 
