SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 



wounded another, but the best efforts of our 

 ponies failed to run him down. He led us into 

 the hills, where we saw several small herds, which, 

 however, we were unable to approach. ^Ve de- 

 cided to camp in the vicinity, so pitched our tents 

 beside a small encampment named Borlien, and 

 spent the next two days hunting antelopes. 



We met with only moderate success, Warrington 

 securing two antelopes. On one of our rambles, 

 while we were sitting on the hillside, two wolves 

 sprang up from the long grass below us. We tried 

 several shots, but failed to bring one down. As 

 in the mountains west of K'uei-hua-ch'eng, we 

 found the distances very deceptive, objects always 

 appearing much nearer than they really were. 

 We might have secured some more good heads in 

 this district if we had known more about the habits 

 of our quarry. As it was, during the two days we 

 spent here we saw numerous small herds, which, 

 however, we found the greatest difficulty in ap- 

 proaching. 



Leaving Borlien on July 23 we continued in 

 a north-easterly direction up a long, narrow 

 valley, in which were large herds of camels, fatten- 

 ing up on the luxurious grass for their winter's 

 work. The bellies of some of these were enor- 

 mously distended, and the humps of all of them 

 were erect and full, showing a good store of nutri- 

 ment already laid by. By noon we reached a 

 small river, crossing which, we soon came upon 



149 



