SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
Near Yen-an Fu we noticed that there were 
many dense thickets, consisting chiefly of the 
thorny wild jujube (Zizyplus sativa 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. pe C. S. 
Ir 
