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did.  Either the robbers have been scared away, or they are busy enjoying the New Year season, for none of them are busy on this part of the river just now.  On the way to Yachow I had a heavy escort, but I have none just now.  We are stopping at Liu Shih Pien tonight, 40 li from Suifu.

    Feb. 27.  At about 2:30 a.m. the moon was very bright, so the boatmen started for Suifu.  They came to a bad rapid, and were soon stalled on some rocks, with danger that the boat would be wrecked.  Life-boats began to hover about like vultures around a carcass.  They would have demanded big sums of money to save us if we had been wreched.  I jumped out of bed and worked for some time with bare feet--later took time to put my shoes on.  After working over an hour we got into the right channel and got over the rapid.  We started to land at Sobochi, but missed the landing and barely missed being hurled against some rocks.  We turned back into the main stream to avoid the rocks, and finally landed in a little bay and anchored until morning, when we came on to Suifu.  Spent the rest of the day unpacking, receiving callers, etc.  A letter from my wife tells that the whole family, including my wife, has had the flu[[strikethrough]] e [[/strikethrough]], my wife and the baby quite badly.

    Feb. 28.  Today I have had the skinner drying bird skeletons all day. 
    
    Chen Gih Uen has done unsatisfactory work collecting in Yachow.  He had trouble both with foreigners and with Chinese.  He did not do faithful collecting, securing only a fraction of what he could have and ought to have secured.  He was in a big gambling deal and one of the men who lost was a nurse in our Yachow hospital. The nurse felt so badly that he committed suicide.  Chen Gih Uen said that the hospital persecuted him so much that he committed suicide, and started to cause a big disturbance against the foreigners by arousing the Chinese servants who were employed by the foreigners to strike, etc.  He was persuaded to desist, but came within just a little of unjustly harming the foreigners at Yachow.  Because he was sending in so few specimens I instructed a friend at Yachow to discontinue his salary and send him back to Suifu.  He wrote a letter to me stating that he had lots of specimens on hand, and that he had written two letters telling about his unjust treatment, one to the Smithsonian Institution and one to the American Government.  What he wrote, if he wrote at all, and who received those letters, I do not know.  I sent him word that if he worked and secured specimens as he ought, his wages would be paid.  He braced up, and had some good specimens when I reached Yachow, but said he was determined to quit and go into business.  He said he wanted me to bring him back to Suifu, which I have done.  We settled up finally today.  He showed a bad spirit, and tried to find ways to compel me to give him more money than was due him.  I am glad I am through with him, and have already taken steps to secure a new collector.

    I hope to get some of my specimens dried and forwarded to the Smithsonian Institution in a few days.

    March 1.  Chen Gih Uen has asked permission to bring in any specimens that he may run across, and of being paid in proportion to the number of specimens secured, which I have agreed to.  If he brings nothing he gets nothing. 

    Since returning to Suifu I have had a very strenuous program.  I have taken no time to rest, and have barely taken time to eat properly.  The result is that today my digestive organs got badly upset.  They are feeling better now.