so I went on.

Climbing was characteristic of the day. Lu-feng-hsien is about 5,500
feet; Sei-tze (where we were to sleep) 6,100 feet. Not much of a
difference in height; but during the whole distance one is either
dropping much lower than Lu-feng or much higher than Sei-tze. For thirty
li up to Ta-tsue-si (6,900 feet) there is little to revel in, but after
that, right on to the terrific drop to our destination for the night, we
were going through mountain forests than which there are none better in
the whole of the province, unless it be on the extreme edge of the
Tibetan border, where accompanying scenery is altogether different.

From a height of 7,850 feet we dropped abruptly, through clouds of thick
red dust which blinded my eyes and filled my throat, down to the city of
Sei-tze. I went down behind some ponies. Upwards came a fellow
struggling with two loads of crockery, and in the narrow pathway he
stood in an elevated position to let the animals pass. Irony of fate!
One of the horses--it seemed most intentional--gave his load a tilt: man
and crockery all went together in one heap to a crevice thirty yards
down the incline, and as I proceeded I heard the choice rhetoric of the
victim and the muleteer arguing as to who should pay.

Just before that, I dipped into the very bosom of the earth, with
rugged hills rising to bewildering heights all around, base to summit
clad luxuriously in thick greenery of mountain firs, a few cedars, and
the Chinese ash. Black patches of rock to the right were the death-bed
of many a swaying giant, and in contrast, running away sunwards, a
silver shimmer on the unmoving ocean of delicious green was caused by
the slantwise sun reflections, while in the ravines on the other side a
dark blue haze gave no invitation. Smoothly-curving fringes stood out
softly against the eternal blue of the heavens. Farther on, eloquent of
their own strength and imperturbability, were deep rocks, black and
defiant; but even here firs grew on the projecting ledges which now and
again hung menacingly above the red path, shading away the sunlight and
giving to the dark crevices an atmosphere of damp and cold, where men's
voices echoed and re-echoed like weird greetings from the grave. Onwards
again, and from the cool ravines, adorned with overhang branches,
forming cosy retreats from the now blazing sun, one emerged to a road
leading up once more to undiscovered vastnesses. Yonder narrowed a
gorge, fine and