stream running between it and the abrupt sides of the grassy hills to the east. We crossed the river over another handsome stone bridge, and passed the ruins of a rather large village. The Tahô issues at this point from between a high spur and the volcano, through a very narrow gorge; and the road wound up the side of the spur, and was laid with a double line of stone flags to facilitate the ascent. From the top we gained a fine view of the small circular lake-like valley, from which the Tahô issued below, and looked down on numerous villages encircling the irrigated level in its centre, which was covered with young rice. Continuing a slight ascent over the grassy hills, by a good broad road, we turned the flank of a lofty hill crowned with a white pagoda; and the valley of Momien lay before us, shut in on all sides by rounded hills, treeless, but covered with pasture. [Illustration: EXTINCT VOLCANO OF HAWSHUENSHAN; FROM SUMMIT OF MOMIEN HILL.] The hills seemed to slope almost to the walls of the city in the centre, but the intervening area was sufficient for an almost unbroken ring of large villages, either in ruins or deserted. To the right rose the Deebay range, beyond which lay the road to Tali-fu, and in the far distance the lofty Tayshan ranges, running north and south, formed a noble background of black rugged mountains. A long narrow valley stretched in a northerly direction, marking the course of the Tahô, from its source in the Sin-hai or Pai-hai watershed, sixty miles distant. Between the foot of the hill and the city wall, a long line of flags of all shapes and colours, and glittering spears, marked the presence of the Tah-sa-kon of Momien. An aide-de-camp presently arrived with a request that we would dismount and greet the governor, who had come out to meet us. We were a motley group, not improved in appearance by twenty-one miles’ march over muddy flats and dusty hills, but, preceded by the most presentable sepoys, with the jemadar carrying a gold sword in front, the three Europeans advanced under the canopy of two gold umbrellas, through a long line of officers and banner men, to the Tah-sa-kon, who, dressed in full mandarin costume, occupied a richly cushioned chair, with three huge red silk umbrellas, fringed with gold lace, held over him. He rose to welcome us with handshaking and courteous greeting, and then escorted us to a large, well-built temple outside the town wall, but close beneath the angle where the governor’s palace stood. Here we took up our quarters with a sense of profound satisfaction at having at last, after so many delays and difficulties, reached a city of Western Yunnan. CHAPTER VII. MOMIEN.