valley we noticed a flock of the Mongolian crows with
carmine beaks circling among the rocks. We approached the place and
discovered the recently fallen bodies of a horse and rider. What had
happened to them was difficult to guess. They lay close together; the
bridle was wound around the right wrist of the man; no trace of knife or
bullet was found. It was impossible to make out the features of the man.
His overcoat was Mongolian but his trousers and under jacket were not of
the Mongolian pattern. We asked ourselves what had happened to him.

Our Mongol bowed his head in anxiety and said in hushed but assured
tones: "It is the vengeance of Jagasstai. The rider did not make
sacrifice at the southern obo and the demon has strangled him and his
horse."

At last Tarbagatai was behind us. Before us lay the valley of the Adair.
It was a narrow zigzagging plain following along the river bed between
close mountain ranges and covered with a rich grass. It was cut into two
parts by the road along which the prostrate telegraph poles now lay, as
the stumps of varying heights and long stretches of wire completed
the debris. This destruction of the telegraph line between Irkutsk and
Uliassutai was necessary and incident to the aggressive Chinese policy
in Mongolia.

Soon we began to meet large herds of sheep, which were digging through
the snow to the dry but very nutritious grass. In some places yaks and
oxen were seen on the high slopes of the mountains. Only once, however,
did we see a shepherd, for all of them, spying us first, had made off
to the mountains or hidden in the ravines. We did not even discover any
yurtas along the way. The Mongols had also concealed all their movable
homes in the folds of the mountains out of sight and away from the reach
of the strong winds. Nomads are very skilful in choosing the places
for their winter dwellings. I had often in winter visited the Mongolian
yurtas set in such sheltered places that, as I came off the windy
plains, I felt as though I were in a conservatory. Once we came up to
a big herd of sheep. But as we approached most of the herd gradually
withdrew, leaving one part that remained unmoved as the other worked
off across the plains. From this section soon about thirty of forty head
emerged and went scrambling and leaping right up the mountain side. I
took up my glasses and began to observe them. The part of the herd that
remained behind were common sheep; the large section that