- 5 



did. Either the robbers have been scared away, or they are busy enjoying the 



Hew Year season, for none of them are busy on this part of the river just now. 



On the way to lachow I had a heavy escort, but I have none just now. We are stopping 



at £.iu Shin Pien tonight, 40 li from Suifu. 



Feb. 27. At about 2:50 a.m. the moon was very bright, so the boatmen started 

 for Suifu. They came to a bad rapid, and were soon stalled on some rocks, with 

 danger that the boat would be wrecked. Life-boats began to hover about like 

 vultures around a carcass. They would have demanded big sums of money to save 

 us if we had been wreched . I jumped out of bed and worked for some time with bare 

 feet — later took time to put my shoes on. After working over an hour we got into 

 the right channel and got over the rapid. We started to land at Sobochi, but 

 missed the landing and barely missed being hurled against some rocks. We turned 

 back into the main stream to avoid the rocks, and finally landed in a little bay 

 and anchored until morning, when we came on to Suifu. Spent the rest of the day 

 unpacking, receiving callers, etc. A letter from my wife tells that the whole 

 family, including my wife, has had the flu*, my wife and the baby quite badly. 



Feb. -28. Today I have had the skinner drying bird skeletons all day. 



Chen Gih Uen has done unsatisfactory work collecting in lachow. He had trouble 

 both with foreigners and with Chinese. He did not do faithful' collecting, securing 

 only a fraction of what he could have and ought to have secured. He was in a big 

 gambling deal and one of the men who lost was a nurse in our lachow hospital. The 

 nurse felt so badly that he committed suicide. Chen Gih Uen said that the hospital 

 persecuted him so much that he committed suicide, and started to cause a big dis- 

 turbance against the foreigners by arousing the Chinese servants who were employed 

 by the foreigners to strike, etc. He was persuaded to desist, but came within just 

 a little of unjustly harming the foreigners at Yacho?/. Because he was sending in 

 so few specimens I instructed a friend at Y a chow to discontinue his salary and send 

 him back to Suifu. He wrote a -letter to me stating that he had lots of specimens on 

 hand, and that he had written two letters telling about his unjust treatment, one 

 to the Smithsonian Institution and one to the American Government. What he wrote, 

 if he wrote at all, and who received those letters, I do not know. I sent him word 

 that if he worked and secured specimens as he ought, his wages would be paid. He 

 braced up, and had some good specimens when I reached Yachow, but said he was 

 determined to quit and go into business. He said he wanted me to bring him back 

 to Suifu, which I have done. We settled up finally today. He showed a bad spirit, 

 and tried to find ways to compel me to give him more money than was due him. I am 

 glad I am through with him, and have already taken steps to secure a new collector. 



I hope to get some of my specimens dried and forwarded to the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution in a few days. 



March 1. Chen Gih Uen has asked permission to bring in any specimens that he 

 may run across, and of being paid in proportion to the number of specimens secured, 

 which I have agreed to. If he brings nothing he gets no tiling. 



Since returning to Suifu I have had a very strenuous program. I have taken 

 no time to rest, and have barely taken time to eat properly. The result ie that 

 today my ■ digestive organs got badly upset. They are feeling better now. 



