SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
The grandeur of that storm as it rolled down 
from the north was superb. Heavy black clouds, 
lit up in places by the westering sun, whose bright 
rays they were about to cut off, came sweeping 
over the granite peaks and down the steep slopes, 
pouring out a white wall of hail, which seemed to 
pass like a scythe over the waving fields of early 
wheat. As the hurricane, driving before it the 
yellow dust from the road, and swirling mists of 
wind-sprayed rain, struck the tall poplars, they 
groaned, bent and cracked. The stout trunks of 
some snapped like matchwood ; others were uprooted 
and hurled to the ground, where their leaves were 
soon stripped off and beaten into the soil. Tele- 
graph poles went down in rows before the fury 
of that blast. As the heavy clouds came overhead 
the light grew dim ; the rain and hail fairly shrieked 
as it thrashed upon the unyielding rocks, or churned 
the soft earth of the fields into frothy mud ; 
jagged forks of lightning ripped through the inky 
pall, followed by the crash of thunder, which 
echoing and re-echoing through the ravines and 
gorges sounded like the roll of cannon in battle. 
Presently a dull persistent roar could be heard, 
which steadily increased in volume till it drowned 
all other sounds, and looking across the valley 
we saw a mighty rushing torrent sweeping all 
before it, and bearing upon its foaming surface 
trees, bushes and debris of all kinds. The terrified 
ponies whinnied and capered in their fear, but 
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