w yelping
excitedly instead of having a goral at bay as we had expected.

Some of the beautiful black and ivory white quills are more than twelve
inches long and very sharp. A porcupine will keep an entire pack of dogs at
bay and is almost sure to drive its murderous weapons into the bodies of
some of them unless the hunters arrive in a short time. The Mosos eat the
flesh which is white and fine.

Although we were only twelve miles from Li-chiang the traps yielded four
shrews and one mouse which were new to our collection. The natives brought
in three bats which we had not previously seen and began a thriving
business in toads and frogs with now and then a snake.

The temple was an excellent place for small mammals but it was evident that
we would have to move high up on the slopes of the mountain if gorals and
other big game were to be obtained. Accordingly, while Heller prepared a
number of bat skins we started out on horseback to hunt a camp site.

It was a glorious day with the sun shining brilliantly from a cloudless sky
and just a touch of autumn snap in the air. We crossed the sloping
rock-strewn plain to the base of the mountain, and discovered a trail which
led up a forested shoulder to the right of the main peaks. An hour of
steady climbing brought us to the summit of the ridge where we struck into
the woods toward a snow-field on the opposite slope. The trail led us along
the brink of a steep escarpment from which we could look over the valley
and away into the blue distance toward Li-chiang. Three thousand feet below
us the roof of our temple gleamed from among the sheltering pine trees, and
the herds of sheep and cattle massed themselves into moving patches on the
smooth brown plain.

We pushed our way through the spruce forest with the glistening snow bed as
a beacon and suddenly emerged into a flat open meadow overshadowed by the
ragged peaks. "What a perfectly wonderful place to camp," we both
exclaimed. "If we can only find water, let's come tomorrow."

The hunters had assured us that there were no streams on this end of the
mountain but we hoped to find a snow bank which would supply our camp for a
few days at least. We rode slowly up the meadow reveling in the grandeur of
the snow-crowned pinnacles and feeling very small and helpless amid
surroundings where nature had so magnificently expressed herself.

At the far end of the meadow we discovered a dry creek bed which led upward
through the dens