October 22, 1917 We visited fur shops again and the Bumsteads purchased a fine gray squirrel coat for $70.00 Mexican and a marmot coat of a fine golden color for $60.00. The shop had a creamy yellow short haired skin which was also made into a coat and was I presume a pole cat of sorts. In one shop I saw a fine Manchurian tiger skin with long hair for $200.00. This was a tawny ground, which is the rule in Manchurian tigers. This shop also had three fine orange-colored tiger skins of the usual short haired sort, and these were cheaper at $150.00 to $100.00 each Mexican. I saw no panda or flying squirrel skins in any of the shops, the skins here all coming from Mongolia or Manchuria, and none from southeastern Tibet where these species are found. Peking is without any Natural History Museum and is behind Shanghai in this regard. A well arranged national collection would be of much educational advantage to the Chinese. We took dinner at the Y.W.C.A. with some ten American college girls who have recently reached China to devote themselves to Y.W.C.A. work here. They were a cheerful, enthusiastic lot and of normal mind, but they have five years of work here before their first furlough home. From the Peking station, they are sent out over China, after a year study of Chinese. We hear they are thrown upon their own resources and devices. The real struggle begins in the semi-missionary work. I should think they would be much happier as wives at home!