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Aug.14 - Another piece of bad luck is that the Reds have made collections all along the Western borderland impossible. There are tens of thousands of them there. That region has been blocked for this summer. collecting so we have tried to collect on Mt. [[underlined]] Omer [[/underlined]] ^[[Omei]]. [[strikethrough]] where [[/strikethrough]] ^[[Here]] bad luck has met us. 

With the skinner Ho I tried to go south to the high mountain on the Szechuan [[underlined]] Zunnar [[/underlined]] ^[[Yunnan]] border. A band of Communists with over 600 rifles and about 1000 people are raiding that section and they are very fond of capturing foreigners and holding them for large ransoms. The officials stopped us and that trip was fruitless, although we went within one day's journey of where the reds and the ordinary Chinese troops were having a battle. 

But I will probably get about fifty boxes of insects, a few snakes, and a few frogs, the smallest catch for many years, but worth something. This summer's collecting will be the least expensive for many years, which will enable us to accumulate a small balance at Shanghai so as to enable us to work more easily financially in the future. 

I will soon mail all the insects yet collected up here. I will put Mr. Ho to collecting on the mountain. 

Aug.19 - Filled 531 to 553. Insects from the summit of Mt. [[underlined]] Omer [[/underlined]] ^[[Omei]] and Gien ^[[Gieu]] Lao De^[[o]]ng, gathered in July, 1935. 

Aug.21 - Mailed 16 boxes of insects, and prepared seven more boxes to be shipped. 
It seems certain that Zen, the netter, has stolen the equipment in his hands and skipped the country. 
Today I sent Ho Son^[[u]] Chuen away to trap, net, and catch frogs,snakes, etc. 

Aug.28 - Ho Son^[[u]] Chuen came back yesterday with one box of dry insects and several bottles (small) of insects and one frog. He had poor luck as he could trap no rodents. 

Filled box 554, insects and fossils, and 555, insects from Hong[[superscript]]12[[/superscript]] Chuen[[superscript]]11[[/superscript]] Pin[[superscript]]2[[/superscript]], a temple whose altitude is about 6000 feet. 

Mr. Ho the skinner has brought in the report that Zen, the netter, ran away with the collecting outfit to sell them, but was arrested as a spy at Omeishien and probably will have all his possessions confiscated including his money, and is even in danger of losing his life. I am having Ho, the skinner, do all kinds of collecting instead of only trapping and skinning. 

It is much harder to collect on Mt. Omer ^[[Omei]] or anywhere this summer than usual. This is now the main military training camp for all China. Very large electric lights are visible for long distances in several places. This makes moth catching at night much harder in lower altitudes. A very strict guard in kept on the roads and paths on the mountain, and this makes it more difficult for collectors to move about. It is not advisable to do much shooting lest the soldiers get unduly excited. 

Transcription Notes:
Unsure how to differentiate exponents from pencil notes. ---use [[superscript]] text [[/superscript]]