Across the Roof of the World. 



and the sweetest that can greet the traveller when trekking 

 across the bleak and arid steppes of Mongolia. We pushed on in 

 that direction and soon reached the karaiil, situated on the far 

 side of a tiny hillock and completely walled in by a j)alisading of 

 brushwood as a protection against the bitter winds. This 

 karaul was similar in size to the one I had passed the night 

 before, and had a force of six Mongols stationed there. 



Soon after I had arrived Bhata came into my aul stating 

 that as I was only a day's march from Wong it would be 

 better for him and Rasul to go on ahead in the early morning and 

 give the young Mongol chief notice of my coming, to which 

 proposition I agreed. Rasul and he therefore started the fol- 

 lowing morning at 5 o'clock, taking with them my Chinese 

 passports. I left later, striking across the plain, which was stony 

 with a scant display of grass. 



Away to the north and south were ranges of mountains, 

 whilst to the east the plain stretched away like a limitless ocean. 

 I had never passed through a more desolate and uninteresting 

 country : its whole aspect oppresses one with its bleak and arid 

 wastes ; no trees to lend a touch of colour to the scene, no bright 

 foliage to charm the eye after days of rock and gravel, nothing 

 but the same seemingly endless wilderness, and the silence of the 

 vast prairies which, when not swept by Arctic blasts, are unbroken 

 by a single sound and undisturbed by the note of a single bird. 



Towards 3 o'clock I came in sight of Wong, the Mongol 

 settlement, and shortly after Bhata, and a number of Lamas and 

 other Mongols came riding out to meet and conduct me to a 

 hut they had prepared for my occupation. 



356 



