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 roufe 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 Fén Ho for another ten miles, when, 
after spending the night at Yung-an-chéng, 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 
