THE LURE OF THE PLAINS 113 



exactly similar. You feel so very, very small and you 

 realize then what an insignificant part of nature you 

 really are. I have felt it, too, amid vast mountains when 

 I have been toiling up a peak which stretched thousands 

 of feet above me with others rearing t^eir majestic 

 forms on every side. Then, nature seems almost alive 

 and full of menace; something to be fought and con- 

 quered by brain and will. 



Early in our work upon the plains we learned how 

 easy it is to lose one's way. The vast sea of land seems 

 absolutely flat, but in reality it is a gently rolling surface 

 full of slopes and hollows, every one of which looks ex- 

 actly like the others. But after a time we developed a 

 land sense. The Mongols all have it to an extraordinary 

 degree. We could drop an antelope on the plain and 

 leave it for an hour or more. With a quick glance about 

 our lama would fix the place in his mind, and dash off 

 on a chase which might carry us back and forth toward 

 every point of the compass. When it was time to re- 

 turn, he would head his pony unerringly for that single 

 spot on the plain and take us back as straight as the 

 flight of an arrow. 



At first it gave him unceasing enjoyment when we 

 became completely lost, but in a very short time we 

 learned to note the position of the sun, the character of 

 the ground, and the direction of the wind. Then we 

 began to have more confidence in ourselves. But only 

 by years of training can one hope even to approximate 

 the Mongols. They have been born and reared upon 

 the plains, and have the inheritance of unknown genera- 



