SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
side of the ridge. Presently there was a splotch 
of blood in one of the footprints, and I knew that 
I was on the right scent. As I hurried along 
through the pines and larches, I presently became 
aware of my quarry standing amongst the trees 
some twenty yards above me. With gleaming 
eyes he stood looking down at me, but before he 
could make up his mind to charge, I dropped 
him with a bullet through the neck, just behind 
the ear. 
The following afternoon we climbed a high 
range of jagged peaks that lies to the south of the 
village, our object being to catch the pigs as they 
left the cover of the forests for their feeding- 
grounds as dusk came on. Two hours’ steady 
climbing through the most enchanting woodland 
scenery brought us to the crest of a knife-like 
ridge between two pointed peaks some 2,000 feet 
above the level of the valley bottom. Below us 
on the one hand lay the dark woods of pine and 
spruce, through which we had just climbed, on 
the other tier upon tier of the purple ridges of 
the foothills stretching away to the pink horizon. 
Away across the valley to our north rugged 
ranges rose higher and higher, culminating in the 
massive granite peak of Lo-yah Shan, whose 
castellated summit caught the last pink rays of 
the setting sun, while its base lay shrouded in 
rapidly gathering mists and ever deepening 
shadows. 
47 
