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- 23 - The military officer in charge called on me this afternoon. He was very friendly (the common soldiers have also been friendly) and appointed a good escort to Yachow. Chinese coolies, soldiers, and similar classes of people are experts at cursing. It seems almost necessary sometimes. A coolie or servant may pay no attention to exhortations or instructions until the other person gets mad and curses him. We met today several caravans of pack-animals carrying cloth, rice, etc., out to Tatsienlu. All the tea we saw today was being carried on men's backs. This tea is in packages weighing about eighteen catties each. I saw today three different coolies carrying sixteen packages of tea. The carrying-rack weighs about twenty catties. The total of these loads is 300 catties each. One catty weighs 1 1/3 pounds, so that these coolies were probably carrying 400 pounds each. I took a picture of one of them. The altitude here at Ma Lin Tsang is about 3000 feet. We passed through some beautiful country today. Green rice and cornfields, hillsides, and cliffs covered with green trees and shubbery, and creeks of blue water, with plenty of large boulders. Aug. 26. this morning we crossed over the pass called Gi Tsi Gang and came on to Yachow. At the top of the pass and at at least one other place on the way large bands of robbers have appeared recently and attacked caravans. The band with which the military officials fought a two days' battle only retreated a little way and are still in striking distance of the road. I was given an escort of a squad of 33 soldiers with rifles, who brought us safely to Yachow. There is no raft or boat on which to go to Kiating, so I must delay tomorrow. I will dry out the insects in the foreign stove. I spent part of the afternoon settling with the coolies. A great deal of cloth, salt, tea, straw sandals, rice, and oil goes out to Tatsientu and hides, wool, medicines, opium, etc., are brought out to this region. Aug. 27. I could not secure a raft so as to get down the river today, so I dried eight boxes of insects in the kitchen stove oven, then wrapped them so they are ready to ship. I also gave materials for the collecting to the netter, Chen Gih Uen, who is to work here during the next few months. I also repacked the boxes for the trip to Kiating. The head coolie embezzled some of the money of the other coolies and skipped the country. I packed for shipping eight boxes of insects, Nos. 146-153. The labels on the outside of some of these differ from the labels on the inside. Had much trouble securing a raft for Kiating. Aug. 28. Started for Kiating. We were delayed because of the slowness of the escort. We passed over many roaring rapids. Our raft is about 14 feet wide and 75