of ammunition for small birds. 



July, 23. We have searched in every direction and 

 find that this i5 such a poor place for large birds and for mammal s 

 that we are going to spend a couple of days at the city of 

 Songpan, then move tomrds Chengtu where we belies conditions 

 to be much more favorable for large birds and mammals. We have 

 a good catch of night moths and of small birds. If we could go 

 west or north of Songpan, we would find plenty of large birds 

 and mammals, but the Heh Shui Bolotsis aborigines are such 

 brigands that the officials will not permit us to travel in 

 those directions. We have not only enquired here, but have 

 actually gone in every direction before being convinced that 

 this is a poor place for mammals and large birds. 



We have found only two kinds of grouse or pheasant 

 here, besides the omnipresent Chinese pheasant . It is black, 

 or at least dark, and lives in the dense woods, and is very 

 wild. We secured one good specimen, and killed a second. The 

 latter fell from the top of a tall fir tree on a steep, muddy 

 incline. It rolled a long way down the mountain, and when we 

 found it, there were not enough feathers left on its body to 

 make it of any use as a specimen. The above notes refer to 

 the district about the Yellow Dragon Temple, about 24 miles 

 northeast of Songpan, with an elevation of about 12,000 feet, 

 probably/fhe lowest elevation is about 12,000 feet, the highest 

 being on the nearby mountain peaks where there is perpetual 

 snow. 



July 26. This Yellow Dragon Gorge is wonderful from 

 the points of view of scenic beauty, geology, and the study of "> 

 anthropology. Two tribes of aborigines* come here on pilgrimages 

 to worship and I have secured some pictures for Dr. Erdlicka. 

 The water of the creek comes down from the snow mountain carry- 

 ing a mineral substance that is being deposited all along the 

 gorge, so that the creek is not carving a deeper route, but 

 actually rapidly building its bed up higher and higher. Leaves, 

 twigs, and logs are being rapidly covered up. The mineral 

 substance when deposited becomes a bright yellow stone, so 

 that the bed of the stream is a bright yellow color. The 

 water flows slowest at the edge of the stream and there deposits 

 its mineral, so that it tends to build banks to the stream. In 

 many places the stream is from five to thirty feet above the 

 surrounding ground or rock, and the lower ^elevations are 

 generally old beds of the stream that have been deserted. 

 Probably, the stream builds itself higher and higher above 

 the neighboring soil or rocks until, in some fre&iet, it 

 breaks over its banks and seeks the lower level, which is for 

 a time the stream bed, and which is gradually built up by the 



