es we hunt carefully over every inch of ground.
Finally my wife discovers it fifteen feet away and stifles a scream for
in it, caught by the neck and still alive, is a huge rat nearly two
feet long; it too is a species which may prove new.

When the last trap has been examined, we follow the trail to the edge
of the forest and into the clearing where the tents glow in the
darkness like great yellow pumpkins. Ours is delightfully warmed by the
charcoal brazier and, stretched comfortably on the beds, we write our
daily records or read Dickens for half an hour. It is with a feeling of
great contentment that we slip down into the sleeping bags and blow out
the candles leaving the tent filled with the soft glow of the
moonlight.

CHAPTER XXVIII

MENG-TING: A VILLAGE OF MANY TONGUES

During the eight days in which we remained at the "Good Hope" camp, two
hundred specimens comprising twenty-one species were added to our
collection. Although the altitude was still 5,000 feet, the flora was quite
unlike that of any region in which we had previously collected, and that
undoubtedly was responsible for the complete change of fauna. We were on
the very edge of the tropical belt which stretches along the Tonking and
Burma frontiers in the extreme south and west of the province.

It was already mid-February and if we were to work in the fever-stricken
valleys below 2,000 feet, it was high time we were on the way southward.
The information which we had obtained near Gen-kang had been supplemented
by the natives of Mu-cheng, and we decided to go to Meng-ting as soon as
possible.

The first march was long and uneventful but at its end, from the summit of
a high ridge, we could see a wide valley which we reached in the early
morning of the second day. The narrow mountain trail abruptly left us on a
jutting promontory and wandered uncertainly down a steep ravine to lose
itself in a veritable forest of tree ferns and sword grass. The slanting
rays of the sun drew long golden paths into the mysterious depths of the
mist-filled valley. To the right a giant sentinel peak of granite rose
gaunt and naked from out the enveloping sea of green which swelled away to
the left in huge ascending billows.

We rested in our saddles until the faint tinkle of the bell on the leading
mule announced the approach of the caravan and then we picked our way
slowly down the steep trail between walls of ta