39» 
scorrs last expedition 
[August 
well oiled wheels, the happiest of communities. A separa- 
tion (temporary) from Brook, who wrote in his diary that 
tribes were very friendly and seemed anxious to help him, 
and was killed on the day following — the truth hard to 
gather — the recovery of his body, &c. 
As he left the country the Ncpaulcse ambassador arrives, 
returning from Pekin with large escort and bound for 
Lhassa : the ambassador half demented : and Meares, 
who speaks many languages, is begged by ambassador 
and escort to accompany the party. He is obliged to miss 
this chance of a lifetime. 
This is the meagrest outline of the tale which Meares 
adorned with a hundred incidental facts — for instance, 
he told us of the Lolo trade in green waxfly — the insect 
is propagated seasonally by thousands of Chinese who 
subsist on the sale of the wax produced, but all insects 
die between seasons. At the commencement of each 
season there is a market to which the wild hill Lolos bring 
countless tiny bamboo boxes, each containing a male 
and female insect, the breeding of which is their share in 
the industry. 
We are all adventurers here, I suppose, and wild doings 
in wild countries appeal to us as nothing else could do. 
It is good to know that there remain wild corners of this 
dreadfully civilised world. 
We have had a bright fine day. This morning a balloon 
was sent up without thread and with the flag device to 
which I have alluded. It went slowly but steadily to 
the north and so over the Barne Glacier. It was difficult 
to follow with glasses frequently clouding with the breath, 
