HOW WILD ANIMALS ARE CAUGHT 87 
foals, which are requisitioned as wet-nurses for the new 
arrivals. In three or four days the foster-parents and their 
young become quite friendly. 
So easy did the Mongolians find this horse-hunting, when 
once they had been shown the way, that they went out to do 
some catching on their own account; and before long no less 
than thirty foals were secured in the camp. This placed 
Grieger in some difficulty. The order, which he had come 
to execute, was only for six. Ought he, then, to incur the 
additional expense of bringing home thirty? There was 
nothing for it but to telegraph home to find out. His journey 
to the nearest telegraph office and back took him over more 
than a thousand miles of country, and involved him in an 
absence of three weeks from the camp. When he arrived 
back, armed with permission 
to bring the lot, he found that 
the industrious Mongolians 
had increased the number to 
fifty-two. With these the 
long journey home was com- 
menced, the party consisting 
not only of the wild foals, but 
also of their foster-parents, 
the animals carrying the tra- 
vellers and their baggage, 
and thirty native recruits. 
Slowly the caravan wound its 
way over hill and dale, in 
rain and sunshine, in heat 
and cold. Anxiety for the 
safety of the captives was 
never absent. Many of them, 
as was inevitable, died on the 
journey, in spite of all the 
care that could be exercised. And in other ways the journey 
was decidedly eventful. 
Wild horses. 
