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such as at present exists, at the base, where traders wait for weeks, and even months, to form caravans. At the same time, money being placed in the Mongols' pockets, their buying powers would be increased, and, with brighter trade prospects in the north, the settlements there would grow considerably. As the system developed, say in five or ten years, motor cars to replace the animals for certain work, such as carriage of mails, officials, &c. The advantage to the Mongols, besides the actual placing of money in their pockets, would be the development of their resources, for they would find more purchasers for their wool and hair, which would get to market sooner, while the growth of the traffic would demand a larger quantity of ponies and camels for the carriage of goods. The only people who could suffer would be those camel-owners who now run caravans, but, in the larger interests of the whole of Mongolia, these should not be allowed to stand in the way, and, indeed, I am not certain that they would suffer, as the change would merely cause a displacement, and caravans would continue to run in other directions not served by the Tai, or else they could be compensated by the purchase by the Chinese Government of their animals for Tai use.
For the execution of the system, a Chinaman to be retained at each Tai to act as interpreter and to keep the books; he would be allowed to keep a small shop, but not to lend money or sell injurious things (opium or spirits). At Kweihnacheng, Kalgan, Urga, Uliassutai, Kobdo, Altaishan, and other centres from which Tai passes are issued, small offices to be instituted solely for the Tai work, and to be in charge of competent Chinese, the central office being at Kalgan, where one officer would be in charge of the whole system, reporting to the Central Government. Such an officer would have to be an energetic man, as he should pay surprise visits along the road, besides an annual inspection if possible. This last official to be an energetic honest foreigner (an Englishman preferably, in no case a Russian), for ten years at any rate. No Chinese man could effect the reorganization of the system; there are too many interested in the maintenance of the present corruption, including the members of the Lifanpu (Board of Dependencies), and the amount of hostility would crush any Chinese official, even were an honest and energetic one to be found. Were the Chinese Government to accept the service of a foreigner, and there are plenty of suitable men in the Imperial Maritime Customs Service, they would have a prosperous Mongolia in a few years, the cost of administration would be compensated by an increase in Customs revenues, while their own scheme of developing Mongolia by Chinese penetration would be being realized.
I earnestly beg to invite the attention of His Majesty's Government to this scheme, which would go far towards the development of Mongolia as a Chinese dependency, and which, instead of creating irritation among the Mongols or causing damage to their carrying trade, as railways might do, would probably be received with favour. In the interests of the Imperial Exchequer the well-being of Mongolia cannot but be a source of anxiety to the Central Government.
The above scheme was sketched out in Mongolia from an intimate knowledge of the roads in the dependencies; at that time I had had no experience of the wonderful posting system in Russia, which should serve as a model for the reorganization of the Chinese Tai system.
SECTION IV.-URGA TO ULIASSUTA!.
It had been my intention to form a caravan in Urga and to travel westwards over the Khangai Mountains to Uliassutai via Karakoram. It was, however, impossible to obtain transport; this was partly due to the depression of trade, partly to the severity of the rains. As it was probable that I should be detained several weeks in Urga I was reluctantly obliged to accept the Amban's offer of a pass enabling me to travel by the Tai Road. The ill-success attending all efforts to form a caravan would have probably caused me to return home from Urga had it not been that I had undertaken to furnish His Majesty's Government with a full report on the state of affairs in Mongolia, and that it was essential, with that object, to learn what steps, if any, had been taken at Uliassutai to develop the country. I therefore felt that the journey ought to be continued by whatever means were available.
July 26.-We left for the south, and, crossing the Tola with no little danger on account of its swollen state, made our way back to Sair Ussu, where we joined the Kalgan-Uliassutai Road, and on the 2nd August turned in a north-westerly direction across the desert. Until we reached Sair Ussu the rains which we had experienced in Urga pursued us, one or more violent thunderstorms accompanied by torrents of rain overtaking us daily.
August 2.—A 12-mile march from Sair Ussu brought us to Modon. Here lives a Chinaman who keeps a small mud shop and sells kettles, boots, wooden and porcelain bowls, silk and coloured stuffs, chopsticks, strings of beads, snuff-bottle pouches, tinder- boxes, &c., to the Mongols and lends them money. Everything was scrupulously clean and well arranged and likely to attract the Mongol eye. The Mongol, it must be remembered, is like a child; if he sees something that glitters or pleases him he desires to possess it. He therefore borrows not because be has need of nioney to keep the wolf from the door, but because he is always wanting to buy something, and does not wish to sell his stock or the things (such as head dress or saddlery) on which he has already spent his money. Thus the Mongol will always be a borrower until the art of a bank account becomes known to him, when he will perhaps put his money aside instead of spending it on ornaments. It is therefore to the advantage of the Chinese Government to see that it is from Chinese and not from Russians that the money is borrowed, for whoever lends it has the whip-hand over the Mongols.
The Chinese merchant at Modon takes camel's hair as payment, and there was a large stack of this in one corner awaiting transport to market.
Passing over dreary desert country for another 20 miles we halted at Boluk, or Haberuk, and slept there. Here lives another Chinese money-lending trader. He is a Shansi man, and spends ten months of the year at his business and two at home. These traders do not intrude on one another's beats, but always return to the same place.
In During the afternoon we discovered a new kind of vegetable in the desert. appearance it is like a French bean or small pea pod; it hangs from short grass about The only name 8 inches from the ground. The Mongol name for it is "temenehock,” we could give it was grass clon. It is said to be very expensive and uncommon in Peking. The flavour is slightly sweet, and the Mongols eat it as a fruit; we employed it as a vegetable, and, as may be imagined, tound it a welcome change to our desert fure. Whatever its real name may be, and however much it may be already known to the world, it is interesting to note that it grows in such abundance on the gravelly wastes of the Gobi.
August 3.-We reached Shobutan after 15 miles of downs and low hills; 2 miles before reaching camp we passed a temple a mile away in a valley to our right. Another 16 miles brought us to Los after passing a large temple of the same name 6 miles before reaching camp. Leaving again the same evening we marched another 20 miles over rolling downs to Djirin.
August 4.-Just as we were leaving a party of thirty arrived from the north-west. The party included two small Chinese officials from Kobdo who are travelling with a quantity of Chinese servants and one Mongol iuterpreter to Peking to escort the newly- appointed Governor of Kobdo to his post.
Twelve miles over easy country brought us to Menget. En route we passed numerous pools of water, and at mile 8 a small lake with a Lama Temple on its banks, Another both called Horun. At Menget there is a Chinese trader of the usual type. 20 miles brought us to Tchaptehir; here the Gobi seems to cease, for the country is entirely covered with grass, not the sparse grass of the Gobi, which shows each plant lying on the sandy gravel, but really thick grass with small shrubs growing in it.
August 5.-We reached Tuguruk after a march of 16 miles, and Cherim 15 miles
later.
August 6-After marching 23 miles we descended into the valley of the Onghin, and, keeping parallel with the stream for some 3 miles, reached the camp of the same name at mile 26. The Onghin flows from the mountains in a south-easterly direction, and after passing the camp of the same name continues in the same direction, to lose itself in the desert some 80 miles away, near the Lama Temple of Ulansume (“Red Temple "). Ney Elias wrote of it in 1872: "The altitude of the Onghin at this point is 4,740 feet above sea; it winds through a flat valley in several branches or loops, and with a current at this season (October) of 3 to 4 miles an hour. The bed is a loose shingle of chalcedony and the water clear and sweet, though a good deal of efflorescent salt is observable in the soil of the valley."
We forded the stream a quarter of a mile from camp. I had expected to find it swollen from recent rains and an impediment to traffic. It was, however, not more than We 14 feet deep and perhaps 75 feet broad, in spite of beavy rains in the mountains, continued for 20 miles over the plain, covered thickly with grass, to Unirt, or Uniget. At times the track was nothing but long pools of water, the result of recent rain, but these can be circumvented. Ünirt lies close to low hills, the beginning of the long
which stretches to and beyond Uliassutai.
range
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