SPEED MARVELS OF THE GOBI DESERT 25 



In the distance herds of horses and cattle grouped them- 

 selves into moving patches, and fat-tailed sheep dotted 

 the plain like drifts of snow. I have seldom seen a bet- 

 ter grazing country. It needed but little imagination to 

 picture what it will be a few years hence when the inevi- 

 table railroad claims the desert as its own, for this rich 

 land cannot long remain untenanted. It was here that 

 we saw the first marmots, an unfailing indication that 

 we were in a northern country. 



The thick blackness of a rainy night had enveloped us 

 long before we swung into the Urga Valley and groped 

 our way along the Tola River bank toward the glim- 

 mering lights of the sacred city. It seemed that we 

 would never reach them, for twice we took the wrong 

 turn and found ourselves in a maze of sandy bottoms 

 and half-grown trees. But at ten o'clock we plowed 

 through-the mud of a narrow street and into the court- 

 yard of the Mongolian Trading Company's home. 



Oscar Mamen, Coltman's former partner, and Mrs. 

 Mamen had spent several years there, and for six weeks 

 they had had as guests Messrs. A. M. Guptil and E. B, 

 Price, of Peking. Mr. Guptil was representing the 

 American Military Attache, and Mr. Price, Assistant 

 Chinese Secretary of the American Legation, had come 

 to Urga to establish communication with our consul at 

 Irkutsk who had not been heard from for more than a 

 month. 



Urga recently had been pregnant with war possibili- 

 ties. In the Lake Baikal region of Siberia there were 

 several thousand Magyars and many Bolsheviki. It was 



