80 ACROSS MONGOLIAN PLAINS 



eggs," for grain is very scarce and it takes an astound- 

 ing number of rubles to buy a bushel. 



Fortunately we had sent most of our supplies and 

 equipment to Urga by caravan during the winter, but 

 there were a good many odds and ends needed to fill our 

 last requirements, and we came to know the ins and outs 

 of the sacred city intimately before we were ready to 

 leave for the plains. The Chinese shops were our real 

 help, for in Urga, as everywhere else in the Orient, the 

 Chinese are the most successful merchants. Some firms 

 have accumulated considerable wealth and the China- 

 man does not hesitate to exact the last cent of profit 

 when trading with the Mongols. 



At the eastern end of Urga's central street, which is 

 made picturesque by gayly painted prayer wheels and 

 alive with a moving throng of brilliant horsemen, are 

 the Custom House and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

 The former is at the far end of an enormous compound 

 filled with camel caravans or loaded carts. There is a 

 more or less useless wooden building, but the business 

 is conducted in a large yurt^ hard against the compound 

 wall. It was an extraordinary contrast to see a modern 

 filing-cabinet at one end and a telephone box on the felt- 

 covered framework of the yurt. 



Not far beyond the Custom House is what I believe 

 to be one of the most horrible prisons in the world. In- 

 side a double palisade of unpeeled timbers is a space 

 about ten feet square upon which open the doors of 

 small rooms, almost dark. In these dungeons are piled 



