THE LONG TRAIL TO SAIN NOIN KHAN 87 



problems of the day is to sleep comfortably, eat whole- 

 some food, and be properly clothed. It is not often, 

 then, that you will need a doctor. We have not as yet 

 had a physician on any of our expeditions, even though 

 we have often been very many miles from the nearest 

 white men. 



It never ceases to amuse me that the insurance com- 

 panies always cancel my accident policies as soon as I 

 leave for the field. The excuse is that I am not a "good 

 risk," although they are ready enough to renew them 

 when I return to New York. And yet the average per- 

 son has a hundred times more chance of being killed or 

 injured right on Fifth Avenue than do we who live in 

 the open, breathing God's fresh air and sleeping under 

 the stars. My friend Stefansson, the Arctic explorer, 

 often says that "adventures are a mark of incompe- 

 tence," and he is doubtless right. If a man goes into the 

 field with a knowledge of the country he is to visit and 

 with a proper equipment, he probably will have very 

 few "adventures." If he has not the knowledge and 

 equipment he had much better remain at home, for he 

 will inevitably come to grief. 



We learned from the Mongols that there was a won- 

 derful shooting ground three hundred miles southwest 

 of Urga in the country belonging to Sain Noin Khan. 

 It was a region backed by mountains fifteen thousand 

 feet in height, inhabited by bighorn sheep and ibex ; and 

 antelope were reported to be numerous upon the plains 

 which merged gradually into the sandy wastes of the 

 western Gobi where herds of wild horses (E quits prje- 



