SPORT ON THE PLATEAUX 333 



and pulling on frozen boots as quickly as possible. 

 Luckily, no other dressing is necessary, with the ex- 

 ception of donning a heavy overcoat. After gulping 

 down the usual unsatisfactory early meal and seeing 

 that the saddle-bags were stocked with provisions, 

 cartridges, etc., I mounted a shaggy little Mongol pony, 

 and, followed by the old hunter and another " local," 

 made for some high ground to the north. At the same 

 time the two other parties moved off in different direc- 

 tions. We looked like cavalry patrols starting out to 

 reconnoitre an enemy's position. 



A piercing cold wind seemed to cut right through 

 me, in spite of a sheepskin coat and Canadian mits, 

 as we crunched our way up a half-frozen stream-bed in 

 the cold grey morning light, that made me look with 

 longing eyes towards the small patches of sun which 

 were just tinting the highest points. The indifference 

 with which the Mongols and Kirghiz treat both the 

 heat of summer (and in the thin atmosphere of the 

 plateau the sun has terrific power) and the frightful 

 cold of winter is almost incredible. It is not an un- 

 common sight to see young children turned naked 

 outside the yurts, in all weathers, to get hardened ! 

 This Spartan treatment leads to the " survival of the 

 fittest," and has produced a people whom it would 

 be hard to beat for indifference to climatic extremes. 



On reaching the head of the valley, the old man 

 indicated an outcrop of rock as being a suitable place 

 from which to start spying. Leaving the " second 

 horseman " behind, we crept forward to this vantage- 

 point. A large stretch of country lay before us. We 

 were on the edge of a considerable plateau composed of 

 undulating grass-land, with outcrops of rock here and 



