the way things usually go in China ! I had really not reflected to get started until the next day. But even if it was late P.M. a start of some sort was desirable for otherwise it indeed all * have had to be done over again in the A.M. Getting out of the city with the cart was a problem for the roads were unbelievably bad. Simply lakes of liquid mud on which our cart sank to its hubs. Outside Beyond the city the plain was almost as bad, but we splashed along until 7.30 at night. If I had been dark [illegible] for an hour when we finally reached an inn. The doors to the compound were shut barred but by dint of pounding we elicited and answer from the far interior. But we made a mistake by allowing them to talk before the cart arrived. This Peking dialect showed at once that he was a stranger & the inn keeper would not open the door. Finally he simply retired & left us hammering four heart's content. Fortunately there was another inn not far away where our cater was known & we were given entry without difficulty. We had long day over bad roads and just before dark crossed a pass then a low mt. range. On the very summit we discovered a flock of chukkar but our guns were on the cart. The mist lay so close that it was