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Tien-cb'iao (natural bridge), where a stream emerges from beneath limestone hills. Here there was once a flourishing silver mine, but the workings were buried by a landslip many years ago, as the natives said, since which the ore has only been worked by squatters, who wash it and send it away in small quantities to be smelted: the ore is said to yield both zinc and silver.
Since scaling the plateau up to Hui-shui-t'ang the rocks have been the same, namely, limestone, generally argillaceous, and shale with sandstone only at the bottom of the deep valleys beneath the limestone. After Hui-shui-t'ang the argillaceous limestone is supplanted by a harder rock, apparently siliceous limestone. The gorges, bluffs, caves, and underground rivers that filled the landscape with romantic nooks and picturesque surprises now give way to broad valleys and hills, hard, round, and desolate. The villages arc terribly poor. Some, as Yao-chang, were evidently once more considerable, for there are well-hewn blocks of limestone lying about that would not disgrace a London warehouse. But over
a pile of such stones there are now nothing better than brushwood shanties, into which an English farmer would scruple to put a cow.
On the 18th November we reached Wei-ning Chon, which was burnt several times during the rebellion, a wretched place, commercially speaking, but interesting from its position on a lake, and from the fact of its being one of the highest towns in this part of the world (7,330 feet). I have put the lake into my sketch as it appears on the District Magistrate's Map, where it is described as follows
"This was formerly a marsh, but has now become a water domain (lake), with a circuit of 100 miles (much indented). There are hills all round, much rock and sand, and a poor soil, cold and barren, not worth cultivation."
I gathered from the people who came to gossip as I stood on the wall overlooking the lake, that the water encroached to its present size only in 1858. Before that date there had been no more than an inundation of a narrow basin round the river in summer, much the greater part of the present area of the lake being planted with mao pui (identified at Kew as Panicum frumentaceum Roxl, P. Crus-Galli var). The same year an attempt was made to drain the lake to the north-west, and a hill was cut through with that object; but the attempt failed, for hail or other-like phenomena always stopped the work, showing that it was the will of Heaven that their fields should remain flooded. It is probable that the cause of the lake's extension is the blocking up of an underground chanuel as at T❞ung-tzů Hsien (see last part of this Report).
On the way down to the lake at Wei-ning we noticed for the first time a deposit which is a distinctive feature of the Yunnan plateau-a loamy earth of a warm red colour which lies high up in the hills in sheltered places-in gullies for instance-as well as on the floor of the valleys where it has been cut through by water as by a knife, leaving vertical sides often more than 100 feet in height. Sometimes it bears clear evidence of deposit by water and sometimes appears almost granular, so as to remind one of descrip- Wherever tions of the loess of Shansi. It has evidently never been subjected to pressure.
it has been washed away limestone appears beneath. This bright coloured earth, pleasant to walk and ride upon and well stocked with game, is one reason amongst many which make the plain of the Yunnan lakes a pleasant land to the European traveller.
A large sheet of water is always interesting to dwellers in mid-continent; but this lake supplied us with bodily as well as mental food, so as to impress itself on the memory of the whole party; the water-fowl were easy to get at and of excellent flavour; while the question where all this water came from baffled comprehension and excited curiosity. A few miles to the south-west, at Lien-san-p'o, the road reaches an elevation of 7,770 feet, the highest point touched during the present journey, beyond which the country drains towards the K'o-tu River. On the north side the line of water parting appears to be only a few miles distant from the lake, and the lake is said to drain off towards the north-west. There
may be very high land somewhere on the east to reward the traveller of the future s time to leave the road.
From Lien-san-p'o to the K'o-tu River, a distance of about 27 miles, there is a descent of 2,550 feet. This stream is about 30 yards across where we passed it, but with a bed at least 100 yards broad, strewn with blocks of shale, sandstone, and limestone, but of no rocks of igneous or volcanic origin.
The boundary between the Yunnan and Kuei-chou Provinces is formed by a brook that joins the K'o-tu River on its left bank, and then by a range of hills that meets the river west of the crossing. The bridge referred to in the name K‘o-tu-ch'iao is that over the brook. On the way down to the river we passed two human heads in cages, blackened by months' exposure. They had belonged to men in General Pao's force, who had plun- dered an officer's baggage. These heads had done good service, for the whole had the advantage of passing within two yards of them.
army had
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The descent to the river much resembled that to the Ch'ih-shui River, but was shorter and steeper.
As soon as the K'o-tu River is crossed the inevitable ascent begins, and in 8 miles, covering an ascent of 2,100 feet, the water parting between the K'o-tu and the T'ang-t'ang streams is reached at an altitude of 7,420 feet above the sea; and a further 7 miles, covering a descent of 1,590 feet, the latter part very steep, bring us to the dilapidated village of T'ang-tang, once a famous mining township. There are many disused copper- mines, but very little is being done at present. The same story was told us here as every- where else, that nothing was wanted but capital.
I should have mentioned that on the 12th November, at Ta-che-p'ing we met numbers of Lolos, or, as they are here more politely called, I-chia (barbarian families) (see Lolo Vocabulary, No. 1). They are very numerous in this part of the plateau; the men wear the Chinese dress, and can usually speak Chinese. There being no mining to inspect at Tang-tang, I went for a walk with my Chinese clerk to inquire about the Lolos, and if possible discover a man who could write their character, when, while standing in the dry bed of the stream that runs past the village, I saw a man riding down a mountain-path towards us on a good pony, with big brass stirrups, and two mounted servants behind him. A boy who was following me thereupon said, "You were asking about the I-chia; look, there is the T'u-ssu (aboriginal Chief) coming into town.” went back to the inn at once, and sent my writer to make friends with the T'u-ssŭ, and, if possible, bring him in to see me, which he succeeded in doing.
The T'ssu was a beavy-featured, stolid man, with whom it was difficult to make way. After time and native spirit had taken the edge off his dulness and suspicion, he gave us an account of the wrongs he and his tribe had suffered lately at the hands of the Mahommedan Chinese who were encroaching on his lands, ending with a request that I would go and see a youth of his tribe who had just been half-killed in an affray. We found a youth of 18, who had just been brought into the village for treatment, lying on a leather mattress spread on the floor in the middle of the room, alongside a wood fire. He had bad sword cuts on the shin, knee, and wrist. The wounds had been covered by an aboriginal practitioner with a plaster of simples, which it would not have been prudent to remove, so gave him the safe advice not to drink and smoke too much, and left some carbolic oil to be applied when the dressing was removed. The T'u-ss was now my friend, and invited me to go back with him to his place in the country, within a few miles of which there lived, he said, a perma, or sorcerer, who could write the Lolo character.
When I got up next morning it was raining cats and dogs. However, the chance was too good to be lost, so at 7 A.M. I went round with one servant. The T'u-ss was
in bed, and we had the pleasure of seeing him make his toilet. I was now very much afraid that he would delay our departure, because of the rain which was falling in torrents; not at all; our stolid friend walked straight out and had the horses brought round, without even remarking that it was raining. We followed a bridle-path that crossed torrents and wound round the edge of precipices, sometimes riding through water up to the horses' knees, sometimes toiling on foot through mud over the ankle. We had gone on thus for about three hours, but our host still said his house was far ahead. About 11 o'clock my servant urged that we could go no further, as we should not have time to get back to the inn, a matter of some importance to him, for he would not touch food in the houses of the Lolos, for fear of being poisoned. Just as I had decided that we must turn back we came in sight of a cottage, which our host indicated as the abode of his sorcerer, where I persuaded him to introduce us. The perma was unfortunately thirty miles away, officiating at a funeral, but his wife and brother were in the house, and five or six other Lolos soon arrived from cottages higher up the hill. The distance of the Chief's house still remaining an uncertain quantity I excused myself from going further, and set to work to learn what I could from the Lolos present.
As it was cold and we were wet through wood was thrown on the fire, round which we sat eating walnuts-the only food to be got. The Chief lay down and smoked opium, About the sounds given in the Vocabulary (Lolo No. 2) of these people's language I am fairly confident, because the six or seven Lolos present were all agreed about them. The perma's brother, our host, could not write; but he professed to be able to pick out a character here and there in his brother's MSS. I copied the following characters from his indication, but he was not very clear about them, and they must be accepted with some doubt:-
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