camp was guarded by a dog or two, and their continual barking had
driven the moose, elk, and bear far back into the deepest forests
where we had no time to follow.

Mr. and Mrs. MacCallie had taken a house in Urga, just opposite the
Russian Consulate, and they entertained us while I packed our
collections which were stored in Andersen, Meyer's godown. It was a
full week's work, for we had more than a thousand specimens. The
forests of Mongolia had yielded up their treasures is we had not
dared to hope they would, and we left them with almost as much
regret as we had left the plains.

October first the specimens started southward on camel back. Kublai
Khan, my pony, went with them, while we left in the Chinese
Government motor cars. For two hundred miles we rushed over the same
plains which, a few months earlier, we had laboriously crossed with
our caravan. Every spot was pregnant with delightful memories. At
this well we had camped for a week and hunted antelope; in that
ragged mass of rocks we had killed a wolf; out on the Turin plain we
had trapped twenty-six marmots in an enormous colony.

Those had been glorious days and our hearts were sad as we raced
back to Peking and civilization. But one bright spot remained--we
need not yet leave our beloved East! Far to the south, in
brigand-infested mountains on the edge of China, there dwelt a herd
of bighorn sheep, the _argali_ of the Mongols. Among them was a great
ram, and we had learned his hiding place. How we got him is another
story.

CHAPTER XIII

THE PASSING OF MONGOLIAN MYSTERY

I know of no other country about which there is so much
_misinformation_ as about Mongolia. Because the Gobi Desert
stretches through its center the popular conception appears to be
that it is a waste of sand and gravel incapable of producing
anything. In the preceding chapters I have attempted to give a
picture of the country as we found it and, although our interests
were purely zoological, I should like to present a few notes
regarding its commercial possibilities, for I have never seen a land
which is readily accessible and is yet so undeveloped.

Every year the Far East is becoming increasingly important to the
Western World, and especially to the people of the United States,
for China and its dependencies is the logical place for the
investment of American capital. It is the last great undeveloped
field, and I am interested in seeing the American business man
appreciat