SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
That night we put up at an isolated inn called 
Tuan-ch’iang, situated beneath the shelter of the 
Wall, and on the edge of a chasm some five hundred 
feet deep. 
The following day another long detour into the 
desert was made, and we stopped for our midday 
meal at a little village situated at the end of a 
Tavine in the sand. A clear stream, springing 
from beneath the wall of sand at the end of the 
ravine flowed along its bottom irrigating some 
small fields of black clayey soil, which supported 
good. crops. 
We followed down the stream till we reached 
a river, along whose banks we travelled till we 
came to a fair-sized town named Kao-chia-pu, 
where we put up for the night. 
A guide, whom we engaged, here told me that 
forty years ago, when he was a boy, the Moham- 
medan rebels crossed the Ordos from Ning-hsia 
in the west, and devastated the whole region. 
He distinctly remembered their entry into Kao- 
chia-pu when they massacred all who did not 
escape into the surrounding hills. 
The following day after a long hard march of 
some thirty miles we reached a large town named 
Shén-mu Hsien. We had now left behind us 
sand and loess, and were in hilly country composed 
mainly of sandstone. 
On May 19 we descended from the high ground, 
and travelled down a long valley, making our 
31 
