SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
Chinese, as being the language which came to 
me most readily. 
We learned that all the natives of Hsi-wan-tzit 
were Catholics, as also were many of the natives 
of the surrounding villages. The magnificent 
building in which we now rested was built after 
the Boxer outbreak. The fathers and brothers of 
the Mission grow their own crops, make their 
own wine, and brew their own beer. They also 
own small herds of cattle and sheep, so that the 
Mission is practically self-supporting. Father 
R gave us some of the wine and we found it 
excellent, especially some that had lain in their 
vaults since 1901. 
At last our Tientsin friends announced their 
intention of returning to civilization, as their 
time was up. We left Hsi-wan-tzii on February 
26. The roads were in even worse condition than 
when we came out, so that it was not till the after- 
noon of February 28 that we arrived back in 
Kalgan. 
The whole country through which we passed, 
including that round Hsi-wan-tzii, was very rough, 
and consisted chiefly of igneous and metamorphic 
formations, though in parts plutonic rocks pre- 
dominated. These mountains, which form the 
ragged edge of the Mongolian Plateau, have been 
deeply eroded. They are bare of vegetation, not 
because they lack fertility, but because the 
natives denude them, year by year, of their entire 
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