Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/247

Rh sight. The wolves, however, had the legs of their pursuer, and were soon out of sight over a neighbouring hilltop. We spent the night at the village of Lai-tou-p'o.

Two more days we travelled over endless mountains, but on the third emerged on to something more nearly approaching to a plateau—i.e., a fairly level high land with an elevation of something over 6000 feet. Cultivation increased steadily as we approached the wide plain in the midst of which the capital stands, villages became more frequent, and farmsteads were to be seen dotted about in favourable localities. From the village of Yang-kai, where we had spent the night of the 17th, we left the track, and striking across a well-irrigated and well-cultivated plain in a south-eastern direction, joined the main road from Wei-ning Chou to the capital. From Yang-lin, our stage of the 18th, a march of sixteen miles over a heath-like country of red soil covered with pine and scrub brought me to the village of Ta-pan Chiao, whence an easy march of twelve miles brought me to the capital on the 20th.