Viewing page 14 of 37

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

- 16 -

August 1. We crossed the Wa Hu Pass, the altitude of which is 16400 feet. We saw a great range of snow mountains to the west, but the great mountains to the east were hidden behind nearby mountains.

We made a long day's journey, reaching Tang Gu, a village with a few houses which is at the highest point of human habitation, altitude 13600 feet. Houses are not found in Tibet, generally about 13500 feet. Above that are merely tents of nomads.

We secured two small mammals, nos. 481-482. One seems to be rare. On the south side of the Wa-Hu Pass, for over ten miles, we went through virgin forests of great trees, fir, spruce, etc., of great size. They had a great deal of moss hanging from their limbs. 

We all arrived at Tang Gu very tired. Tomorrow Mr. Edgar and I will go to Gien Long Shien, and purchase supplies. We have been very short of food. I have not eaten any vegetables for days. Today I ate two raw potatoes rather than wait until they were cooked. 

The people in this village are mostly Tibetans, but there are a few Chinese, mostly men. 

Aug. 2. This morning the hunters and netters went to their tasks, while Mr. Edgar and I went to the village, Gien Long Shien, to purchase supplies, for without them there is no such thing as a successful collecting expedition. Our guide led us by the wrong road, and we had to return, after an hour of travel, to the place we started from. We got another guide, and went on. There are two very small villages quite close together at Gien Long Shien, with a total of about twenty-five houses of all kinds. The villages are over 1/4 a mile apart. In the main village there are about a dozen houses. Most of these also figure as shops. Some sell almost nothing but potatoes, or something of the kind. We found only two boxes of matches in the place, and the price asked was about ten times the real value of the matches. We did not purchase them. We purchased some potatoes,