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yesterday afternoon, last night, all day today, and tonight up to eleven o'clock, has been used in this work. Now I have the nineteen boxes ready to mail.  All of them are zoological or biological specimens. The postmaster says that parcel post packages are getting through to Shanghai. My idea is to get these through before it becomes impossible to do so. The civil war has actually begun, and it seems to be the universal opinion that things must become worse before they can become better. I think that some of Yang Fong Tsang's specimens will proved to be of interest. 

Dec. 27. Today I mailed nineteen boxes of natural history specimens to the American Express Company at Shanghai.

     The aborigine collector returns tomorrow for more collecting. I reckoned accounts and planned with him.

     Word has come that Chen Gih Uen at Yachow has been unfaithful, and has finally quit. I'll try to find and train another more faithful collector.

Dec. 28. Today I purchased a vase probably hundreds of years old, of a type no longer used. I secured it very cheaply, about 25 cents gold. 

Dec. 30. The collector Yang Fong Tsang has returned to him home with a large trap with which to attempt to trap leopards, which are eating people around his home.

     I have paid Dr. Tompkins for all the materials I have bought from his hospital during the past year. He has written to our treasurer to take that fifty dollars gold off his personal account and put in on the Smithsonian account. This finally straightens out matters with Dr. Tompkins. 

Dec. 31. Mammal No. 165. Today purchased some fish, two specimens, and a fox. The [[underlined]] box [[/underlined]] ^[[fox]] is better than most of such specimens secured from hunters. He was killed a short distance from Suifu. I have reshaped the skin some. The hunter is to bring the bones tomorrow. He promises to bring specimens unskinned hereafter, and I can measure them and skin them myself. 

     After tomorrow I expect to find more time for collecting, and will try to increase the number of specimens for a couple of months. I can do so if civil war does not reach our part of Suifu. Just now it is raging about [[underlined]] Ching [[/underlined]] ^[[Chung]]king.

Jan. 1. I spent most of today on a report letter to Dr. Wetmore and on bringing the accounts up-to-date. The account was number ten.

     I am securing large fish. They are rather expensive. This is a good time of the year to pickle them in formalin.

Jan. 2. Secured a fine specimen of hare or rabbit. Mammal 166.

Jan. 3. The netter Chen Gih Uen writes that he has written to the Smithsonian Institution and to the American Government stating that he has been treated unjustly by me. He has either been very lazy, or has been doing something else besides collecting.

Jan. 4. I took a hunting trip today, securing six birds. Secured some fish.