he forest was choked
with underbrush and a dense growth of dwarf bamboo, and the hundreds of
fallen logs, carpeted with bronze moss, made ideal conditions for small
mammal collecting. However, as all the species would probably be similar to
those we had obtained on the Snow Mountain, we did not feel that it was
worth while stopping to trap.

At four-thirty in the afternoon we camped upon a beautiful hill in a pine
forest which was absolutely devoid of underbrush, and where the floor was
thinly overlaid with brown pine needles. Although the Moso hunter, who
acted as our guide, assured us that the river was only three miles away, it
proved to be more than fifteen, and we did not reach the ferry until half
past one the next afternoon.

We were continually annoyed, as every traveler in China is, by the
inaccuracy of the natives, and especially of the Chinese. Their ideas of
distance are most extraordinary. One may ask a Chinaman how far it is to a
certain village and he will blandly reply, "Fifteen _li_ to go, but thirty
_li_ when you come back." After a short experience one learns how to
interpret such an answer, for it means that when going the road is down
hill and that the return uphill will require double the time.

Caravans are supposed to travel ten _li_ an hour, although they seldom do
more than eight, and all calculations of distance are based upon time so
far as the _mafus_ are concerned. If the day's march is eight hours you
invariably will be informed that the distance is eighty _li_, although in
reality it may not be half as great.

In "Chinese Characteristics," Dr. Arthur H. Smith gives many illuminating
observations on the inaccuracy of the Chinese. In regard to distance he
says:

It is always necessary in land travel to ascertain, when the distance
is given in "miles" (_li_), whether the "miles" are "large" or not!
That there is _some_ basis for estimates of distances we do not deny,
but what we do deny is that these estimates or measurements are either
accurate or uniform.

It is, so far as we know, a universal experience that the moment one
leaves a great imperial highway the "miles" become "long." If 120 _li_
constitute a fair day's journey on the main road, then on country roads
it will take fully as long to go 100 _li_, and in the mountains the
whole day will be spent in getting over 80 _li_ (p. 51).

In like manner, a farmer who is asked the weight of