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without a heavy escort unless he wants to be robbed or captured by the Lolos. The best place to hunt where it is safe is toward the lake or inland sea.  Here the rains have made the river a roaring torrent.  The bridges have been swept away and the river is impassable.  The netter is on the other side of the river and cannot get into the city.  He is without money and without kerosene for his lantern.  We wanted to hunt in that direction today. We shall hunt in the one remaining direction which is possible.  Here in the city insects simply will not come to the lantern at night, even the gasoline lantern.

Exchange is a hard problem. There are the ordinary big silver dollars. They are hard to use in this district. Here Yunnan half-dollars with some steel in them are generally used.  The ratio between Yunnan money and big dollars constantly varies. Then there are the copper coins. The ratio between them and big silver dollars or Yunnan money also varies constantly. Often payments must be made in copper coins. I have secured much more favorable exchange recently through the cooperation of friendly postal officials. Postal and military officials have been very friendly and helpful on this trip.

Well! I have long realized that a foreigner in China need not suffer from lack of a variety of interesting experiences.  Here is an illustration. On Saturday we went to the mountain Luh Shan. Chen Gih Uen took some arsenic to use on any wild rats or mice he could catch during the following two nights, for he was to remain and work on Luh Shan until yesterday morning. The head coolie cooked dinner. He thought the arsenic was salt and used it in the vegetables. There are five of us, including myself, who ate that food.  I have felt badly since, but did not know the reason until today. A narrow escape for all of us!! I will be entirely well by Monday when we will leave here for better hunting-grounds. I felt like vomiting after eating that food, but restrained myself. I knew something had been wrong with the food. I am fond of vegetables and ate more of them than anyone else, so I got a worse dose of the arsenic than the others. We will have to make our work more fool-proof in the future. The two dangers, beside robbers, are arsenic and the guns. Chinese are quite apt to pull the trigger of a gun not realizing what may happen.

Later. We secured 18 birds today and two rats, besides some insects. Chen Gih Uen says that the soldiers at Luh Shan tasted the arsenic thinking it was salt. Because it tasted queer they did not use it. If they had not tasted it they would have used it in their food, and then about thirty people in all would have been affected.

I was surprised today to find some white ants working on eucalyptus trees. 

I was invited out to a feast this afternoon.

August 1. Labelled mammals 111-116. Packed several boxes of specimens for shipment.  Secured 6 birds, one snake, and many frogs and insects. Packed eighty birds in three large boxes. Mailed box [[red underline]] 135 [[/underline]] at the Postoffice.

There are two mice that I have lost track of. I do not know whether I gave them a number or not. I will, therefore, skip mammal numbers 117-118, leaving them vacant for these small mice, which are probably packed.