the countries through which we passed, but no study of the
blending and dovetailing of totally different races into the different
types that we particularise under the names of Chinese, Mongol, Tartar
and Russian, would be complete without a journey along the Siberian and
Eastern Chinese Railway. The same remark applies to their dress,
habitations and customs. It is an education in itself, especially if,
like us, one had to stop occasionally to drive bargains, negotiate help,
and have the closest and most intimate intercourse with the common
people. None of them had even seen the British flag, few of them had the
slightest idea where the "Anglisky" lived, and one old Kirghis explained
to his wondering tribemen that we were a strange tribe that had broken
away from "Americanski" and gone to live on a great island in the middle
of the lakes, where no one could touch us unless they risked their lives
on great wooden rafts. I thought the amount of inverted truth in this
charming description very pleasing if not very flattering to our
national vanity.

After climbing the great Hinghan Range the plains of Mongolia came as a
wonder to me. Imagine if you can a perfectly flat land through which
your train glides hour after hour, day after day. The whole is covered
with rough grass and a growth somewhat like a huge horse daisy or
marguerite. At the time we passed these plants had dried, and a terrific
wind sweeping over the plains had broken countless numbers of the dry
herb off near the ground. They fell on their round sides. Directly the
plants had lost their anchorage away they bounded like catherine wheels
over the plains. It does not require much imagination to picture
hundreds of thousands of these rounded tufts of dried grass bounding
along over immense distances. It is quite a fascinating pastime to
select a few of the larger and better formed ones coming over the
horizon and calculate how long they take to arrive opposite your
position. Calculations made in this way convinced me that a small
coloured message properly fastened to these moving objects might have
been carried five hundred miles in twenty-four hours. If, instead of
looking at one, you look at the whole, the impression is of the solid
earth passing rapidly from west to east. There are occasional
obstructions in the shape of a huge flock of sheep which would cover
half of Rutlandshire. These are herded by quaintly dressed Mongolian
Tartars, on wonderful shaggy