82 ACROSS MONGOLIAN PLAINS 



deed it is difficult for us to think of the country without 

 thinking of the man. Some thirty years ago he rode 

 into Mongoha and liked it. He liked it so much, in fact, 

 that he dug a well and built a house among the Tabool 

 hiUs a hundred miles north of Kalgan. At first he la- 

 bored with his wife as a missionary, but later he left 

 that field to her and took up the work which he loved 

 best in all the world — ^the buying and selling of horses. 



During his years of residence in Mongolia hundreds 

 of thousands of horses have passed under his appraising 

 eyes and the Mongols respect his judgment as they re- 

 spect the man. I wish that I might write the story of 

 his life, for it is more interesting than any novel of ro- 

 mance or adventure. In almost every recent event of 

 importance to the Mongols Mr. Larsen's name has 

 figured. Time after time he has been sent as an emis- 

 sary of the Living Buddha to Peking when misunder- 

 standings or disturbances threatened the political peace 

 of Mongolia. Not only does he understand the psy- 

 chology of the natives, but he knows every hill and plain 

 of their vast pjateau as well as do the desert nomads. 



For some time he had been in charge of Andersen, 

 Meyer's branch at Urga with Mr. E. W. Olufsen and 

 we made their house our headquarters. Mr. Larsen im- 

 mediately undertook to obtain an outfit for our work 

 upon the plains. He purchased two riding ponies for 

 us from Prince Tze Tze; he borrowed two carts with 

 harness from a Russian friend, and bought another; he 

 loaned us a riding pony for our Mongol, a cart horse of 

 his own, and Mr. Olufsen contributed another. He 



