Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/164

 intended devoting a year to the exploration of the middle course of the Yellow River, and then returning to Peking. When everything was ready, our impedimenta consisted chiefly of guns and ammunition for the chase, both very ponderous but indispensable: first, as a means of collecting specimens of birds and animals; secondly, because we should have to depend on them for supplying us with food in the districts which had been entirely depopulated by the Dungans, as well as in those parts of China where the inhabitants might refuse to sell us provisions in the hopes of starving us out; lastly, our guns would protect us against robbers, by whom, at all events during the first year, we were unmolested, a circumstance which may be attributed to our being well-armed, and proving the force of the old maxim,  'Si vis pacem para bellum.' 

The rest of our baggage comprised the apparatus for preparing specimens and drying plants; such as blotting-paper, pressing-boards, tow for stuffing, plaster-of-Paris, alum, &c., &c. All this was packed into four large boxes which galled the backs of our camels, but, at the same time, were indispensable to contain the collections. Lastly, I purchased a quantity of small articles for the sum of about 40l. to assist me in my assumed character of merchant. This merchandise, however, proved to be a useless incumbrance; the time lost in trafficking interfered with our scientific pursuits, and did not serve to conceal the real object of our journey. The provisions for our immediate wants were a case of