THE BIG GAME OF WESTERN CHINA. 243 



plain again next day, finding a second pass two days' march to 

 the west. This appeared more encouraging, for we struck up 

 a fair-sized valley, and on the second day reached the small 

 village of Ling-t'ai-miao at the foot of Tai-pei-san itself. 

 Here was an ideal spot for our purpose. The village stood 

 about 3,000 feet above sea level, and the valley was bounded 

 by grassy hills rising some four or five thousand feet higher. 

 Behind lay the Tai-pei-san range, separated by another deep 

 valley, and upon these mountains were dense forests of 

 deciduous trees -willows, birches, hazels, and many others, 

 giving place towards the summit to Conifers alone, and 

 those more or less dwarfed by the prevailing winds which 

 howl across the summit of Tai-pei. On the lower hills, wild 

 hog, already referred to, were common, and the small "grass- 

 deer", to translate the Chinese name literally, were abundant. 

 This deer was originally found in the mountains of northern 

 China during the course of the Duke of Bedford's Explor- 

 ation of Eastern Asia, and has been named CapriolusBedfordi, 

 in honour of the President of the Zoological Society. It is 

 a small animal, standing not more than three feet high at 

 the shoulder: the tail is rather shorter than usual, and the 

 antlers 'at this season in the velvet) small and three-pointed. 

 Like most deer this species is gregarious, but we rarely saw 

 more than a pair together. The species does not seem to 

 extend above 8,000 feet, at least in the winter, though it some- 

 times descends right down into the valleys. Its usual habitat 

 however is the grassy hill tops and thickets. When disturbed 

 it utters a short sharp bark, very like that of a gruff dog, 

 but these creatures were so tame that it was easy to approach 

 -vithin a range of a hundred yards, and the firing of a rifle 

 had no effect on them whatever except of course when a 

 bullet found its billet. Consequently one could lie down 

 .md pump a magazine-full of lead at them, whilst they stood 

 there staring: even when they did start off, they never ran 

 far, but soon halted and continued to stare. Evidently they 

 'enow well that the native weapon is not usually discharged at 

 a range of more than 30 yards, and a magazine rifle firing soft- 

 nosed bullets at a range of 2,000 yards is still quite a novelty 

 to them. This Cijfiriolus was even more common to the south- 

 east of Min-chow in Kansu, then in the neighbour-hood of Tai- 

 pei: but after the middle of April we saw no more of them. 



Another common animal on these mountains is the 

 diminutive musk-deer (Moschns sifanicus), though we 

 never saw one. and only obtained a single specimen 

 from the mountains south of the Tow river, on the Tibet 

 border. However we came across its neat little tracks 

 everywhere in the snow, and frequently met with the traps 

 which the native hunters set for them a noose arranged to 



