372 UNKNOWN MONGOLIA 



giving us a deep impression of its importance as a 

 boundary between Mongolia and the region lying 

 beyond ; between the cold, bleak plateaux and the hot 

 lowlands ; between a land which is exclusively Mongol 

 and a land where many races strive together for mastery, 

 and, most significant of all, between the spheres of the 

 great faiths — Buddhism and Islam. 



On leaving the Dolto Nor we rode over undulating 

 moraines, and finally across a small plain, as hard and as 

 smooth as a billiard-table, which had been utilized by 

 our sporting friends, the Kirei, as a race-course. The 

 annual race-meeting is held in July, when severe tests 

 of the capacity and staying powers of horses and riders 

 take place, as instanced by races run over a course of 

 20 miles ! A line of posts and rails to which the nomads 

 tied their horses was the only sign of it being used as a race- 

 course. Towards the edge of the plain the lake of Dain 

 Kul was to be seen, tucked away under hills covered 

 with golden-tinted larch forest ; and here it was that 

 we made our last camp in Mongolia. On the morrow 

 a long day's journey took us over the watershed of the 

 Altai. The route was in every way an easy one ; in fact, 

 the crossing of the range can be accomplished without 

 much difficulty by laden camels, and we ourselves rode 

 on horseback over the pass, without even dismounting. 

 There was not much snow, and what little there was lay 

 both on the south side and on the north, shale and 

 rock being the feature of the pass. Later we realized 

 that the southern flanks of the Altai receive the greater 

 precipitation, the forest and pasture being larger and 

 finer on the south, and the outlying spurs being more 

 covered with snow than the northern side of the ridge. 

 It was at an altitude of 9,711 ft. that we crossed the 



