e wonderful, more dominating in its grandeur,
and we were glad to be of the chosen few to look upon its sacred beauty.

In the early afternoon we camped in a tiny temple which nestled into a
grove of spruce trees on the outskirts of a straggling village. To the
north the Snow Mountain rose almost above us, and on the east and south a
grassy rock-strewn plain rolled away in gentle undulations to a range of
hills which jutted into the valley like a great recumbent dragon.

A short time after our camp was established we had a visit from an Austrian
botanist, Baron Haendel-Mazzetti, who had been in the village for two
weeks. He had come to Yuen-nan for the Vienna Museum before the war,
expecting to remain a year, but already had been there three. Surrounded as
he was by Tibet, Burma, and Tonking, his only possible exit was by way of
the four-month overland journey to Shanghai. He had little money and for
two years had been living on Chinese food. He dined with us in the evening,
and his enjoyment of our coffee, bread, kippered herring, and other canned
goods was almost pathetic.

A week after our arrival Baron Haendel-Mazzetti left for Yuen-nan Fu and
eventually reached Shanghai which, however, became a closed port to him
upon China's entry into the European war. It is to be hoped that his
collections, which must be of great scientific value and importance, have
arrived at a place of safety long ere this book issues from the press.

CHAPTER XIII

CAMPING IN THE CLOUDS

We hired four Moso hunters in the Snow Mountain village. They were
picturesque fellows, supposedly dressed in skins, but their garments were
so ragged and patched that it was difficult to determine the original
material of which they were made.

One of them was armed with a most extraordinary gun which, it was said,
came from Tibet. Its barrel was more than six feet long, and the stock was
curved like a golf stick. A powder fuse projected from a hole in the side
of the barrel, and just behind it on the butt was fastened a forked spring.
At his waist the man carried a long coil of rope, the slowly burning end of
which was placed in the crotched spring. When about to shoot the native
placed the butt of the weapon against his cheek, pressed the spring so that
the burning rope's end touched the powder fuse, and off went the gun.

The three other hunters carried crossbows and poisoned arrows. They were
remarkably good shots and at a distance of one