40 
over -crowded province. 
Man has ■become so plentiful here as to have 
■become a nuisance, a t)est. There is no .room for 
all these people here and yet they keep on a 
■breeding. Everyv/here there are scores of children 
and the one has even less chance than the other. 
In the mountains whole villages are syphilitic; 
people without noses are often met with and syphi- 
litic ■blindness and deafness are very common. In 
the inns the vermin is exceedingly plentiful and 
■bloodthirsty and ordinary travellers have to sleep 
three alareast in one ■bedstead or on one broad 
"bench and the stinkingly dirty "bedcovers are kept 
in use until they fall to pieces. No wonder that 
80?^ of the population suffers from all sorts of 
skin diseases, "being inoculated "by lice, fleas, 
and "bed"buds. I slept moat times with my hunting 
boots on, for the vermin "bites one espiscially at 
one's feet and legs, having learned no dou"bt that 
they are less easily caught there. I think it 
actually is dangerous to sleep in some of these 
"holes" we staid in, ■but what else can one do? 
There are most times no clean open places around 
Chinese towns and villages to put up tents and 
the insatiable inquisitiveness of the natives 
would necessitate some watchmen around all the 
time . 
We went with one chair with two bearers and 
six carrying coolies. I did not sit for one minute 
in the chair, but my interpreter and the guide ipade 
use of it whenever they were tired. The walking 
for 6 to 8 hours every day almost did me much good 
and I feel much better than some weeks ago, 
KoViT as regards my observations on various 
things. Pyrus calleryana is simply a marvel. One 
finds it growing under all sorts of conditions; 
one time on dry, sterile mountain slopes; then 
again with its roots in standing water at the edge 
of a pond; sometimes in open pine forest, then 
again among scrub on blue-stone ledges in the burn- 
ing sun; sometimes in low" bamboo-jungle in the 
company of Pistacla chinensis , Vitex negundo , Gu- 
drania triloba , Ziziphus .ju.iuba , Ulmus parvifolla , 
Hosa multiflora , etc., and then again along the 
course of a fast flowing mountain stream or on 
the occasionally burned-over slope of a pebbly 
hill. The tree is nowhere found in groves; al- 
ways as scattered specimens, and but very few large 
trees were seen. There are reasons for that. 
December 31. 1917. 
