MONGREL DOGS 103 



replanting are hardly worthy of note, and every- 

 where in wooded districts trees are being cut down 

 with the same happy disregard for the future as was 

 shown in the past. Not only are they being cut 

 down, but a tremendous amount of waste goes on. 

 As, however, we came across practical results of 

 this devastation while hunting, I will leave the 

 subject for the present. 



The day before reaching Choni we crossed the 

 Tao River, a swiftly flowing stream of comparatively 

 clear water just outside the town of Chung-tsai-chi. 

 Another sign that we were drawing near the border 

 lay in the yak carts. The animals which drew them 

 were gaily decorated with red tassels. Large bells, 

 usually three in number, hung beneath the axle, 

 their deep booming note echoing sweetly along the 

 road. The canine population, too, was growing in 

 size and becoming more mastiff-like. Some animals 

 had the appearance of enlarged Guisachan retrievers 

 with rough yellow coats. Never, in my wildest 

 nightmare, did I ever imagine such a mixture of 

 types as was presented by the dogs we saw. They 

 reached their climax after we had left Lanchow, 

 though our previous wanderings had done something 

 to prepare us for the monstrosities with which we 

 were then confronted. A white beast would 

 sedately waddle from a doorway like an animated 

 clockwork toy. Following it came a creature 

 which, at a hundred yards through the wrong end 

 of a telescope, bore a faint resemblance to a long- 

 haired dachshund. An Irish terrier with the head 

 of a black-and-tan suddenly developed as it changed 

 its position into a cross-bred setter with the 

 posterior of a bob-tailed sheep dog. They presented 



