164. ACROSS MONGOLIAN PLAINS 



neither of them had seen game of any kind. During 

 the day we discovered some huge trout in the stream 

 almost at our door. We had no hooks or lines, but the 

 Mongols devised a way to catch the fish which brought 

 us food, although it would have made a sportsman 

 shiver. They built a dam of stones across the stream 

 and one man waded slowly along, beating the water 

 with a branch to drive the trout out of the pools into the 

 ripples ; then we dashed into the water and tried to catch 

 them with our hands. At least a dozen got away but we 

 secured three by cornering them among the rocks. 



They were huge trout, nearly three feet long. Un- 

 fortunately I was not able to preserve any of them and 

 I do not know what species they represented. The 

 Mongols and Chinese often catch the same fish in the 

 Tola River by means of nets and we sometimes bought 

 them in Urga. One, which we put on the scales, weighed 

 nine pounds. Although Ted MacCallie tried to catch 

 them with a fly at Urga he never had any success but 

 they probably would take live bait. 



August 20 was our second day in camp. At dawn 

 I was awakened by the patter of rain on the tent and 

 soon it became a steady downpour. There was no use 

 in hunting and I went back to sleep. At seven o'clock 

 Chen, who was fussing about the fire, rushed over to say 

 that he could see two wapiti on the opposite mountain. 

 Yvette and I scrambled out of our sleeping bags just 

 in time to see a doe and a fawn silhouetted against the 

 sky rim as they disappeared over the crest. Half an 

 hour later they returned, and I tried a stalk but I lost 



