252 WILD LII-K IX CHINA. 



and variety of the vegetation in the two cases, yet the former 

 is in reality the easier to penetrate, for the very reason that 

 that great development of the lofty vegetation in the one 

 case makes the interior of the forest so dark that the under- 

 growth has little chance to establish itself, and hence one 

 can usually see some yards ahead, and make fair progress : 

 the solid wall of vegetation which the outside of a tropical 

 jungle presents is no index to the conditions inside. The 

 shrub vegetation of western China, however, attains no great 

 height, and though the absence of conspicuous trees is 

 probably in all cases due to human interference, yet in those 

 places where the forests still remain intact, undergrowth 

 and shrub prevail at the expense of trees. This "bush/' 

 averaging ten or twelve feet in height, is composed of small 

 trees and shrubs profusely entangled with creepers and 

 filled in with a considerable herbaceous undergrowth which 

 here receives sufficient light to develop. Consequently it is 

 really more difficult to hunt big game through such a tangle 

 than through a tropical jungle, especially since the game is 

 likely to be considerably less bulky than that which inhabits 

 the forces of equatorial regions. On the other hand, were 

 one to devote all one's time to it as does the ivory hunter, 

 no doubt one could hunt big game over these mountains 

 even in the summer: but it is as well to bear in mind that it 

 is necessary to force one's way bodily through the "bush, "a 

 proceeding which is naturally rather noisy, and also that it is 

 impossible to see anything with any certainty ten yards ahead. 

 All things considered then, the summer is emphatically not 

 the season for big game hunting in western China; the ideal 

 time is autumn, in the north at any rate, for the winters 

 there are extremely rigorous. 



Passing through southern Kansu we stopped for some 

 days south of Pikow, at the edge of the limestone wall which 

 bars the way into what is geographically Tibet. This 

 magnificent country of huge bald cliffs alternating with 

 densely forested slopes harbours a good deal of genuine 

 big game musk-deer, mountain-sheep, and Buciorcits. all of 

 which I found the spoor of, besides several semi -fabulous 

 monsters which became known to us chiefly through local 

 tradition. The most curious of these possibly fictitious beasts, 

 which were spoken of quite seriously by the natives, was a 

 medium-sized animal with long red hair, which lived on 

 monkeys! (Incidentally this goes to show that there are 

 monkeys as far north as this in western China, thought they 

 probably do not extend north of the main watershed between 

 the Yangtze and the Yellow River.) But though the zoologist 

 may be inclined to scoff (I am inclined to think however that 

 no man with any real scientific knowledge and training would 



