no less than three T'ai-p'ing-p'u eggs, and you come and tell me that I must be taken ill with great pain?" "Sir, this story a very funny story—I don't think it can be true story." It fortunately proved to be false as far as I was concerned, but I spent a day in gloomy anticipation of what each succeeding moment might bring forth.
We dropped hurriedly to the valley of the Shun-pi after leaving T'ai-p'ing-p'u, and crossing that river by a good suspension-bridge, followed along its right bank to its junction with the Shuang-cha Ho. A short distance up the left bank of this river brought us to the village of Huang-lien-pu. The usual formidable range faced us on the far side, and from 7.30 A.M. the day following until 10 A.M. I climbed doggedly and without a halt. From the summit we travelled on for some miles at a considerable altitude, through lovely wooded scenery, till towards evening, when we descended abruptly down barer hills covered with withered grass, which must flourish luxuriantly in the wet season. Below us, running at right angles to our course, lay the valley of the Yung-ping, a
