van, with instructions that 

 a tin of lO gallons was to 

 be left at each of the three 

 telegraph stations, which 

 were about an equal dis- 

 tance apart across the 

 desert. 



The Chinese who was 

 in charge of this office 

 spoke English and enter- 

 tained us in the guest- 

 room, which is always re- 

 served for officials trav- 

 eling on government busi- 

 ness in Mongolia. The 

 Chinese government op- 

 erate a telegraph line 

 across the desert from 

 Kalgan, in China, to Ki- 

 achtka. in Siberia. The 

 altitude at this point is 

 5,600 feet. We were now 

 180 miles from Kalgan, 

 and in this one day we 

 had made a distance of 

 90 miles. 



\\'e were now on the 

 actual Gobi Desert, and 

 at times found the roads 

 very, very sandy, so that 

 it was impossible to make 

 good time. At a well we 

 took a few photos of the 

 native women and also of 

 a lama. The lamas have 

 their heads shaved, but the 

 ordinary Mongols wear a 

 queue like the Chinese. 

 Their features are very diflferent from 

 the Chinese and both sexes are filthy be- 

 yond description. About 98 per cent of 

 these natives never bathe from the cradle 

 to the grave. 



Later in the day we came upon a ^Nlon- 

 golian temple, which was patterned more 

 after the Tibetan style of architecture. 

 There were a great many dirty lamas 

 living there. 



Till-: TlCLKGRAril I.\ THE DKSKKT 



Night overtook us when we were pass- 

 ing through a very bad stretch of rocky, 

 mountainous country, and, rather than 

 risk the car and our necks, we stopped 

 the car at the side of the road and spent 

 the night where we were. 



I'hoto by Klhaii C I.c Munyon 



A TYPICAL MONGOLIAN LAMA: TIIKSE LAMAS ARK THE) 

 PARASITES OF MONGOLIA 



Uddc, the second telegraph station, lo- 

 cated at an altitude of 3,000 feet and 

 situated at the foot of a small mountain 

 almost in the exact center of the desert, 

 was the next stopping place ; it was 328 

 miles from Kalgan. Here we discon- 

 nected the muffler from the car, as we 

 had no "cut-out," so that if it was possi- 

 ble to save fuel and keep the engine cool 

 we could try our best to do so. That 

 afternoon we traveled on some compara- 

 tively good roads, but as they were full 

 of small holes, fast running was out of 

 the question. About dark we came up 

 with a caravan and spent the night in 

 one of their tents, we having none. 



The following day we disturbed sev- 

 eral herds of antelope and managed to get 

 one. We estimated that in one of the 



653 



