32 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 78

and Kiatingare the worstthey have been foryears."' In preparing for the trip to Kiating, soldiers

commandeered

Graham's boat, but eventuallyhe recovered it, and on June 27 the foreign party, con- sisting of five boat loads, with twenty cargo boats, started on ^the journey.

At

Sin Shih l*ien, the foreignersweredelayed a dayor two, and the officers in charge of the escort compelled

them

to pay $900.00 for protectionto Kiating.

On

June 29 they left Sin Shih Pien and at night

camped

at

Nang

Chang, on the north side of the stream, withaband ^{of robbersjust}across the river.

On

June 30they

made

further progress, reachingSi Chi. and onJuly ⁱ went 40 lito Mal- intsang,

where

they learned that theEighth

Regiment

had

come

out andtakenChien

Way. The

^escort

was

at

war

withtheEighthRegi- ment,anddid not darego any farther.

Graham

writes: "

We

there- forearrangedtoallow

them

todepart,and forustogo on with

some

militiaescorting."

On

July 3 the partyreached

Ho

Keo, 20li

from

Chien

Way.

where they foundthatcivil

war

had suddenly

come

upon

them

again.

The

party secured permission^tocontinueonitsway,thoughprogress

was

rendered difficultby heavyrains,which caused theriver to rise sev- eral feet.

On

July5the party sentamessenger aheadto Kiating, as theywere outof

money

and nearly out of bread andcoolies.

Mr.

Graham

writes: "_I have travelled

up

the

Min

River

many

times, butthishas beenthe slowest

and

worsttrip I haveevermade. This

is due to thecargo boats, tohighwater, andto the brigands

From

Suifuithasbeenimpossibletoshoot birdsbecause of brigands andmilitary operations."

The

party reached Kiating onJuly7,and having gonethusfar,

Mr. Graham

decidedto try for

Washan

IMoun- tain,and hadactuallystarted,

when

onthe 12th amessengerarrived with a letter saying conditions

were

getting worse

down

the river, that

many

British subjects were leaving Szechwan, and that all foreignersmightbeorderedto leave, alsoadvising thatheabandonhis planto visit

Washan. He

notes: "_Itisakeendisappointment, butit

seems unwisetogoon, soto-morrowI'll go back toward Mt.

Omei

and

spend the

summer

as profitably as ^I can."

On

July 14 he re- ceived a letter stating that conditions were improving and that the foreign

community

withdrew its requestthat he should not attempt thetripto

Washan. He

thereuponagain headed for thatmountain, and

on

July 23 reached the summit, which he says is the highest pointin central Szechwan.

On

everyside "itisa sheer cliffseveral thousand feet high, with only one road to the topand back

The

road

made

afewcircles,

and

soonI found myself walkingalong

SMITHSONIAN

EXPLORATIONS, I925 33

Fig. 34.—

An

idol being carried in a sedan chair in an idol procession at Ngan Lin Chiao, near Suifu, Szechwan, China. (Photograph by D. C.

Graham.)

34

SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS

COLLECTIONS VOL. yS

theedgeacross the top of thatcliff, withonly a foot or

more

of dirt and

some

smallbushesbetween

me

andtheprecipice. Latertheroad leadsa long

way

ontheedgeofa

narrow

ridge,oneachsidea sheer precipice of thousands of feet. In one spot the path is about ₃ feetwide,and Ithink alittleless. IttookallthegritIhadto cross that place,

and

I'dhatetoattemptitinrainyweather

when

^{the rocks} areslippery. Thereisoneplace

where

thereisnoplacetogetafoot- hold,

and

the precipiceisbridgedbypolesplacedsidebyside, under thebridge is a

chasm

thatone does notlike to look at.

To

cap the climax, near the top are long ladders. It is practically perpendicu-

FiG. 35.

—

Part of a retreatingarmy (the whole army numberedtens of thousands of soldiers), being ferriedacross theriver at Chien Way, near Kiating,bya steamer towhich small Chinese boats aretied. (Photograph byD. C.Graham.)

lar at thesepoints, and without the laddersno one could reach the top."

He

writes further: "

We

areintheonly buildingon

Washan.

atumbled-down templethat will leakbadly ifit rains. There isno oneliving in this templeor

anywhere

on the mountain."

After spending

some

timeatthe

summit

of the mountain in pur- suitof specimens,

Mr. Graham

retracedhisstepstothelowerlevels, and finding conditions further improved, turned his attention to Mt. Omei, whichis a

few hundred

feet less inheightthan

Washan,

andiswithinsightof it oncleardays. Mt.

Omei

is oneof the four great sacred mountains of China, there being

many

smaller sacred ones,but

Omei

isoneof the importantBuddhistcenters, with

many

temples between the top and Kiating. After beginning

work

on

NO. I

SMITHSONIAN

EXPLORATIONS, I925 ₃₅

Omei, he received a Chineseletter stating thatthe Buddhist society incharge of this sacred mountain had heard that he

was

collecting specimenshere,and

had

sent instructionstoorder

him

todiscontinue all shooting above

Wan

Xien Si.

He met

all oi the priests in the templeandcarefully explainedhispurposeinsecuring the specimens, but they

were

obdurateand there

was no

alternativebut tocomply.

He

says^: " Instructions weredefinitely given for

me

to discontinue shootingonthisholymountain,asit

would

cause

some

tobelievethat theBuddhistpriestswereinsincere,

and

theBuddhistsocietycontrol- ling themountain

would make

trouble with the priests of the local temple. Itherefore plan togo

down

themountain to-morrowas far

Fig. 36.

—

SteamboatatChienWay. Foreigners can be seenontheupper deck. The native soldiers are part of the retreating army. This is just before the greatretreatbegan,whenover 30,000soldierswereferriedacross theriverbythissteamboat. (Photograph byD. C. Graham.)

as possible."

He

adds: "thetop ofMt.

Omei

isa richplacefor col- lecting,and^theaboveorderis

much

toberegretted.''

Inpreparingforhis return journey,

Mr. Graham

decidedtopack his summer's accumulationofspecimens andmail

them from

^thevil-

lageofShinKaiSi,toreducethedangerofloss

from

robbers.

Over

seventy parcelswere packed and mailed

from

this place, afterwhich hesetout for Kiating,

where

he

was

totry

and

arrange for the safe transport of the Suifu foreigners

from

Kiating to Suifu.

Mr.

Graham'sreturn

from

Kiatingto Suifu

was

filledwithexcit- ing incidents, due to war, brigands,

and

lack of food.

He

writes

:

"

With

over one hundred thousand troops engaged in civil

war

in the Province,with bandsof robberseverywhere, and withthe serious complicationsbetween China and the foreignpowers, it

may

be con-

36

SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS

COLLECTIONS VOL. j8

sidered a victoryto have carried through the collecting trip and to have secured

more

specimens than were collected in any previous year."

Mr. Graham

explains that there are

two Washan

mountains in Szechwan, onetothewestandnorth ofMt.Omei,near

Yachow.

and the other southofMt.Omei.

The

last

Washan

has precipitoussides, andis the one

where

his collections were made.

The

illustrations

show

viewsbetween KiatingandSuifu,

made

on the last part of his journey, the negatives for the earlier parts of hisexpeditions nothaving beenreceived intime forreproduction in thisnotice.

Fig. 37.

—

North edge of the central plain of Haiti, with the low,scrnli- covered limestone mountains which boundit. Mostof the caves occur at about thelevelof the streak of nearly bare rock seen near themiddle of the mountainmass.

EXPLORATION OF HAFflAN CAVES

During

]\Iarchand April, 1925. ^I spentabout six weeksin Haiti with the principal object of exploring the caves near

San

Alichelwhich were visitedby

members

of the

U.

S. Geological Survey in ]\Iarch, 1921. Soundings

made

inthefloorsof these cavesin 1921had

shown

the presence of rich deposits of bones of extinct vertebrates, and

two

shortpapershad beenpublished inwhich

some

of theseanimals weredescribed.

The

probleminhand

was

to determinethe richness and true nature of this fauna, and to correlate it with the faunas which have been found inthecave deposits ofPorto Rico,

Cuba

and Jamaica.

Arriving in Port-au-Prince

March

3, 1925, I spent 10 davs at a point about 6 miles west of the citv on the coast of the southern

SMITHSONIAN

EXPLORATIONS, I925 37

Fig. 38.- Artibunite River, thelarj^est streamin Haiti between St.AlarcandGona'ives.

IS seen from road

I'jo. j,ij.--Roadside cotton bu3cr between Gonaives and St. Marc. The

merchant is seated miderthe ^shelter behind the pile of cotton. Peasants bring theircotton in smallquantities for sale. It is weighed on thescales attheright.

38 SMITIISONIAX

MISCELLANEOUS

COLLECTIONS VOL. 78

peninsulanear PointLamentin.

Here

generalcollections were

made

chiefly ofplants, reptiles,andbatrachians.

Four

weeks were then givento the real object of the expedition.

The

caves visited by the Geological Surveyparty in 1921 are situ- ated in the southward facing slopes of the

low

mountains which borderthenorthwesternextremity of the centralplainof Haiti.

The

plantationof I'Atalaye,

now owned

andoperatedbytheUnited

West

J.

rr^^^Hi \W\ 'T

i^

"^y^^\^} ^'

«" 1

HHHKn

?m^ ^^^^^^T^^^^*

Fig. 40.

—

Adansoniatree on plain east of SanMichel. This Africantree, supposed to live toanage of several thousandyears,is probably arelicfrom the days of the slave trade.

Indies Corporation, provedtobe a very convenient base

from

which to work.

The

soundings

made

bythe Geological Survey partywere enlarged and fully explored.

Four

untouched caves in the same neighborhood were also examined.

The

floors of all of these caves contained rich deposits of bones of

mammals,

birds, reptiles, and batrachians, occurring

from

practically at the surface

downward

forabout₃feet.

Beyond

a depthof4or5 feetboneswerenotfound.

The

material collected has not yet been critically studied, but a superficial examination shows that it consists very largely of the

SMITHSONIAN

EXPLORATIONS, I925 39