172 IMPRESSIVE SCENERY. PASS ACROSS RANGE. 



you are liable to miss, or the game, mortally wounded, 

 falls down some inaccessible chasm and is lost. But 

 one fortunate shot rewards you for all the troubles 

 and difficulties you have undergone. 



Then, too, what happy moments the mountains 

 bring with them, as after climbing a lofty peak you 

 obtain a distant view, as you linger for an hour in 

 the exhilarating air, and admire the panorama spread 

 out at your feet ! The great cliffs, which close the 

 gloomy defiles or tower towards the sky, have a wild 

 beauty all their own ; many a time have I paused on 

 such a spot, and sat down on a rock to enjoy the 

 impressive stillness of the scene, unbroken by the 

 voice of man or the ordinary bustle of life. Now 

 and then you may hear the cooing of the rock doves, 

 the shrill cry of the kite, or the noisy descent of the 

 vulture from the clouds to its nest, and then all is 

 again still. 



Towards the end of our stay in the Munni- 

 ula we hired the services of a Mongol, by name 

 Dj'uldjig, and accompanied by him set out for the 

 Chinese town of Bautu,^ to replenish our supplies 

 of rice and millet, and then to cross the Hoang-ho 

 and continue our journey to Ordos. 



In order to reach the other side of the Munni- 

 ula we followed the pass near our encampment, over 

 which the natives ride on mules and asses. The 

 road is not difficult, and the gradients only become 

 steeper on the southern side, descending by the 



* Properly Si-Bantu, in contradistinction to Ara-Bautu, a small 

 village not far from it. 



