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During the war last year, the Chinese soldiers burnt many houses, and the lamasery, in this village. Ruins of houses can be seen in all directions. We are now in the midst of aborigines, but all is quiet and peaceful.

July 4. Secured mammals 257, 258. It rained a good deal of the time, but Yang Fong Tsang made two hunting trips, and I made one. The insects secured last night filled two whole boxes. The carpenter is making more boxes rapidly. 

I have made arrangements to engage six aborigine hunters for a trip on the high mountains to hunt the white bear and other mammals. They are to go with me. We will camp in a tent, for there are no houses.

We secured two snakes today.

I spent part of the afternoon taking care of specimens and preparing for the journey up to high altitudes.

Filled boxes No. 327-328 both filled with insects secured July 3, 1929.

These are large boxes.

July 5. Mammal skin No. 258 was given to me as a present by a Chinese, and I will give it to the Smithsonian Institution. It is not especially valuable.

I worked until 1:30 a.m. last night getting ready for the trip to the mountains.

We had a very hard time getting started this morning. The coolies were not ready, and had to smoke their opium. When we finally did get started, one of them could not carry his load and keep up. The new collector Lai had to carry half his load for him.

I killed four birds, one with red feet, a pheasant. The natives call it a Pine Pheasant. It is so badly shot up that I may be unable to preserve the skin.

We are in the wilderness, at the top of a range of the mountains, the elevation being 11500 feet. We have to climb higher tomorrow, and soon will be higher than Mt. Omei or Washan.

We are getting a fine catch of night moths. We got some rare flies today.

July 6. I killed six birds before breakfast, none of which are new to the Smithsonian collection. We climbed to the elevation of 12300 feet, where we are camping. We will hunt around here two or three days. We got a large catch of night moths last night. Our tent is right on the path or road for there is no other level spot on which to pitch a tent.

This summer I am living almost entirely on the food that can be purchased locally. I am not even using butter. The only foreign food I am using is half a tin of carnation milk each day. This cuts down the expense of travel a little. So far I have not suffered any, aside from occasionally making a whole meal on corn bread or the like.