100 ACROSS MONGOLIAN PLAINS 



hills, stood a little temple surrounded by a cluster of 

 gray- white yurts. 



Our Mongol learned that the next water was on the 

 far side of a plain thirty-five miles in width, so we 

 camped beside the largest pond. It was a beautiful 

 spot with gently rolling hills on either side, and in front, 

 a level plain cut by the trail's white line. 



As soon as the tents were up Yvette and I rode off, 

 accompanied by the lama, carrying a bag of traps. 

 Within three hundred yards of camp we found the first 

 marmot. When it had disappeared underground we 

 carefully buried a steel trap at the entrance of the hole 

 and anchored it securely to an iron tent peg. With 

 rocks and earth we plugged all the other openings, for 

 there are usually five or six tunnels to every burrow. 

 While the work was going on other marmots were 

 watching us curiously from half a dozen mounds, and 

 we set nine traps before it was time to return for dinner. 



The two Chinese taxidermists had taken a hundred 

 wooden traps for smaller mammals, and before dark we 

 inspected the places they had found. Already one of 

 them held a gray meadow vole (Microtus), quite a dif- 

 ferent species from those which had been caught along 

 the Tola River, and Yvette discovered one of the larger 

 traps dragged halfway into a hole with a baby marmot 

 safely caught. He was only ten inches long and cov- 

 ered with soft yellow-white fur. 



Shortly after daylight the next morning the lama 

 came to our tent to announce that there was a marmot 

 in one of the traps. The boy was as excited as a child 



