ous to suppress the use of opium and it has succeeded to a
remarkable degree. We heard of only one instance of poppy growing in
Yuen-nan and often met officials, accompanied by a guard of soldiers,
on inspection trips. Indeed, while we were in Meng-ting the district
mandarin arrived. We were sitting in our tents when the melodious notes of
deep-toned gongs floated in through the mist. They were like the chimes of
far away cathedral bells sounding nearer and louder, but losing none of the
sweetness. Soon a long line of soldiers appeared and passed the camp
bearing in their midst a covered chair. The mandarin established himself in
a spacious temple on the opposite side of the village, where I visited him
the following day and explained the difficulty we had had at the Meng-ting
_yamen_. He aided us so effectually that all opposition to our plans ended
and we obtained a guide to take us to a hunting place on the Nam-ting
River, three miles from the Burma border.

CHAPTER XXIX

CAMPING ON THE NAM-TING RIVER

Every morning the valley at Meng-ting was filled with a thick white mist
and when we broke camp at daylight each mule was swallowed up in the fog as
soon as it left the rice field. We followed the sound of the leader's bell,
but not until ten o'clock was the entire caravan visible. For thirty _li_
the valley is broad and flat as at Meng-ting and filled with a luxuriant
growth of rank grass, but it narrows suddenly where the river has carved
its way through a range of hills.

The trail led uncertainly along a steep bank through a dense, tropical
jungle. Palms and huge ferns, broad-leaved bananas, and giant trees laced
and interlaced with thorny vines and hanging creepers formed a living wall
of green as impenetrable as though it were a net of steel. We followed the
trail all day, sometimes picking our way among the rocks high above the
river or padding along in the soft earth almost at the water's edge. At
night we camped in a little clearing where some adventurous native had
fought the jungle and been defeated; his bamboo hut was in ruins and the
fields were overgrown with a tangle of throttling vegetation.

We had seen no mammals, but the birds along the road were fascinating.
Brilliant green parrots screamed in the tree tops and tiny sun-birds
dressed in garments of red and gold and purple, flashed across the trail
like living jewels. Once we heard a strange whirr and saw a huge hornbill
flapping heavily