is a wonderful feat of engineering. Ami Chou was reached at 5.30 P.M. The train halted here for the night, and Pereira had to put up in a rather poor inn kept by a Greek.
Yunnan Fu was reached on July 1, and Pereira stayed here with Mr. Sly, the Consul-General. It is now a kind of summer resort for people from Tonquin, from the heat of which it is a pleasant change, being 6140 feet above sea-level. He now had to make his preparations for the journey to the Tibetan border, and luckily this time he was able to secure the services of a companion, Dr. H. Gordon Thompson, whom he had at one time hoped to have had with him on his journey to Lhasa. Great difficulty was experienced in getting mules, but on July 17 all preparations were completed, and they set out with an escort of thirty-five soldiers.
A few miles out, from a hill-side, he had a last view back over the beautiful Yunnan plain. The paved road then led among hills and down a narrow valley to Erh-ts'un at 151 miles, a village of eighteen houses, but no inn, and Pereira had to sleep in the verandah of a house, for the inside rooms were swarming with bugs. The night was wet and there was drizzling rain as he left next morning for Che-pei, 211 miles, 5394 feet, and in the afternoon there were two heavy downpours. At 10 miles he passed through Fu-min Hsien, a town of a thousand families, which should have been his first stage. Here there was a fine old covered bridge with shops on it. The escort was now reduced to ten. The road, partly paved but often very muddy, led up and down over low hills.
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