UNKNOWN MONGOLIA 



CHAPTER XI 



SPORT ON THE PLATEAUX OF MONGOLIA 

 By J. H. Miller 



The north-west corner of Mongolia has many beauties 

 in summer. Its round-headed bluffs of dark shale, 

 slashed with snow-drifts, rise from rolling downlands 

 covered with a luxurious growth of short, yellow-green 

 grass, brightened by brilliant patches of gentians, 

 crocuses, edelweiss, and other Alpine flowers. Its 

 innocent-looking, but treacherous, bogs give birth to 

 sparkling streams, which form the numerous rivers that 

 flow through barren foot-hills on to still more arid plains, 

 and terminate in large saline lakes. Groups of the 

 dome-shaped tents of the nomads are scattered over the 

 plateaux, and, wherever grass is plentiful, along the 

 edge of both river and lake ; countless flocks and herds, 

 the only wealth of their wandering owners, dot this 

 matchless pasture-land, and from a cloudless sky a 

 brilliant sun beats down upon plain and plateau. 



In winter this land of extremes presents a very 



different picture ; everything is then locked in the 



grip of the frost fiend ; snow lies everywhere, except on 



the exposed tops which the pitiless wind blows clear, 



II— I 319 



