YA-CHOW-KUN 187 
the top I made the elevation to be 12,800 feet above 
sea-level. Every winter lives are lost in this pass, for 
though poles are put up to mark the track, if a snow- 
storm should come on it is very easy to lose the way, 
the pass not being just a passage over a ridge, but the 
road leads right across a depression about three miles 
across, called by the coolies, ‘ the cup.’ Any deviation 
from the path here would put them in deep snow, from 
which they could only with the greatest difficulty 
extricate themselves. On commencing the descent, in 
most disagreeable weather, snow and sleet falling heavily, 
I was glad to reach after atime a place named Ya-chow- 
kun, where there is a rest-house frequented principally 
by the Chinese collectors of medicine. There were 
nearly fifty of them when I arrived, and a huge fire was 
burning in the middle of the place, fed with logs quite 
two feet in diameter. There was no chimney and the 
inside was black with smoke ; the heat was, however, 
very comforting, and I found that there was a small 
room built off at one end which I appropriated to my 
own use. The house, though built strongly and ona 
level piece of ground, had been blown much out of the 
perpendicular, and had it not been supported by struts 
on one side would certainly have fallen. The principal 
room was about sixty feet long by thirty broad, and 
in it the medicine collectors lived and slept. Just out- 
