SINO-MONGCLIAN FRONTIER 



Chinese, as being the language which came to 

 me most readily. 



We learned that all the natives of Hsi-wan-tzu 

 were Catholics, as also were many of the natives 

 of the surrounding villages. The magnificent 

 building in which we now rested was built after 

 the Boxer outbreak. The fathers and brothers of 

 the Mission grow their own crops, make their 

 own wine, and brew their own beer. They also 

 own small herds of cattle and sheep, so that the 

 Mission is practically self-supporting. Father 



R gave us some of the wine and we found it 



excellent, especially some that had lain in their 

 vaults since 1901. 



At last our Tientsin friends announced their 

 intention of returning to civilization, as their 

 time was up. We left Hsi-wan-tzu on February 

 26. The roads were in even worse condition than 

 when we came out, so that it was not till the after- 

 noon of February 28 that we arrived back in 

 Kalgan. 



The whole country through which we passed, 

 including that round Hsi-wan-tzu, was very rough, 

 and consisted chiefly of igneous and metamorphic 

 formations, though in parts plutonic rocks pre- 

 dominated. These mountains, which form the 

 ragged edge of the Mongolian Plateau, have been 

 deeply eroded. They are bare of vegetation, not 

 because they lack fertility, but because the 

 natives denude them, year by year, of their entire 



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