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was very little sleep for anybody. Before daylight our escort came and told us it was daylight and was time to start. By the light of the moon we travelled over a mile before dawn. We got to this place, Hua Tan Chiao, eighty li, early in the afternoon. 
We are in the midst of draught. For a long time there has been no rain, and everything is drying up. Consequently we secure very few insects. If the weather does not change, we can not expect a rich catch this trip. We are skipping Shuin Zien (correction in pencil: Gien) Si, the next village, because there is much dysentery there. That will cut down our journey by about four days. Aug. 26. We secured definite information that there is a bad pestilence of dysentery at Shuin Zien (correction in pencil: Gien) Si. We therefore went directly to Kongshien, skipping Shuin Zien (correction in pencil: Gien) Si. The head militia officer at Hua Ian (correction in pencil: Tan) Chiao invited me and some friends to a feast this morning, which caused us to get a very late start, but we reached Konshien about 4.00 p.m.
Apparently, in Szechuan, success in collecting depends a great deal on weather conditions, especially success in securing insects. We are having luck just the opposite from that which we had on the Mupin trip, due to the fact that this section is enduring a period of draught. 
Aug. 27. We got a larger number of night moths last night than on the previous night, but still only a fraction of the number I would like to get. Several of the night moths seem to me to be different from any I have previously secured. 
During the day I had a number of children catching insects in return for picture postal cards. They caught mostly grasshoppers and katydids. The coolies also caught insects. 
I spoke twice in our chapel, and went to the Yamen to interview the magistrate regarding an escort. We will leave here tomorrow. The magistrate had me return to the Yamen and play the victrola.