8th, we passed through some low hills and emerged on another large plain in which stands the town of Yün-nan Hsien. Leaving the town a mile or two to the north, we climbed a mountain-range, where our path lay among masses of wild rose in bloom, and descended on the far side to the northern end of the Mitu plain, halting at the village of Hūnghai. To the south the plain stretched away to the horizon, and it is up this tract of level land that the Yün-nan Company's Commission decided on bringing their line from the Kung-long Ferry, carrying it over the range a little south of where we crossed it, to Yün-nan Hsien, and so on to the capital, following the direction of the road along which we had travelled, but turning instead of crossing the ranges, which cut the existing route at right angles. A branch, it was proposed, should follow the caravan route from Hūnghai to Tali Fu, and possibly on past that city to Shang-kuan, the northern pass out of the valley in which Tali Fu is situated. Between Tali Fu and Yün-nan Fu the line would pass along what may be described as
