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from Chinese predecessors. Shops pay taxes to the Government (of Urga); the large shops are rated at about 45 taels (135s.) a-year, the smaller shops being assessed according to their earnings by the twelve principal shops, who report to the Amban. To this annual expense which merchants have to meet, must be added a customs tax at Kalgan on goods entering Mongolia, and another squeeze on entering Urga.
The Russian shops are said to number from thirty to forty, with a population of 400 all told. The chief business of the Russian merchants, as that of their Chinese confrères, is the collecting of wool, skins, hides, &c., for transport and sale elsewhere. I do not know at what price the Russians buy. The Chinese buy ox hides and pony skins often at 30 cents a-piece, and sell them in Peking at 1 tael. A collection I saw awaiting transport was very inferior. The Russian shops sell a great variety of things-blue enamel pots, clotli, calico, cotton, sugar, cheap porcelaiu, pails, hardware, scent, muslins, saws, boots, shoes, matches, toys, brandy, an inferior American whisky, and a great many things which appeared much too civilized for the Mongol market. I enquired whether Chinese trade suffered in consequence of the Russian competition, but heard no coin- plaints. Slackness of trade has caused several Russian shops of late years to close. Urga lies four days by road south of Kiachba, six days south of the nearest railway station on the Siberian Railway, and twenty-one days roughly from Kalgan, Kweilua- cheng, and Uliassutai respectively, By means of the Russian post-office it has an excellent service of mails, which is probably expensive to keep up if what Dr. Gatrell said in 1902 is correct: "The Russian postmaster informed me that the postal service between Urga and Kalgau costs the Russian Government 2,800 roubles a month, and that the Chinese profited most from it." Letters are sent to and received from Kalgan once a week, the transit taking seven days. There is a Russian mail once a week to Uliassutai, the transit thither also taking seven days. Once a month parcels are sent south by camel service. The Chinese telegraph administration is served by four Chinese clerks, two of whom have an excellent knowledge of English, and one of Russian. They have very little work to do. The rate per word to England was 6s. 3d. in July last. The money in currency in Urga is Russian, the rouble note being employed and nickel coinage in the shape of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 kopeks. There are also copper coins of the value of 1 kopek. The paper rouble notes are extremely popular: they are spoken of as "sheets by Mongols and Chinese, which causes some confusion at first to the traveller.
5
A branch of the Russo-Chinese Bank is very courteous in assisting the traveller with regard to money matters. A Chinese bank has recently been established in the town. Like other trading houses, the Russian Bank appears to have suffered from the depression of trade and there is little business. The building is a plain two-storied yellow brick construction, with quarters also for the mining department and for the bank staff. The Russian Consulate is a handsome two-storied building on rising ground between Mongol, Urga, and Chinese Maimachin. Painted white it looks very refreshing after the squalor elsewhere. The small compound, which would be vastly improved if some trees were planted, contains the Russian post-office with a few other bungalows, with, to the west, the barracks. The whole is surrounded by a shallow moat some 12 feet broad and full of wire entanglements, a relic of 1900.
With the exception of the Maityr Buddha temple, which is worth seeing on account of its fine collection of Buddhas which are kept with their votive scarfs in a wonderful state of cleanliness, one other temple near the Amban's yamên, and perhaps the Bogdo's residence on the bill in the centre of Old Mongol Urga, there is nothing to see in Urga except street life. This, however, fully compensates for the lack of interest elsewhere. One can pass many hours in the market-place watching the Mongols making their purchases on the one side and on the other the pious and ceaseless round of visitors to the innumerable prayer-wheels festooned with rags and bones, in studying the picturesque silver head-dresses of the women, which gives them the appearance of wealth entirely out of keeping with their often ragged clothing, or in watching the lamas from Thibet and from all over Mongolia visiting the shrines, while in yet another corner waits a long line of ox carts laden with wood from the mountains until the Mongols in charge of them have daly made each wheel in the market-place revolve on his behalf to Buddha. The temples are vastly inferior to those of the Wutaishan. They seem to be mostly yourts or large buildings of wood and felt of the yourt pattern. The town is wholly given over to prayer, and all day long thousands of lamas are hard at work, whether in their own encampment (so mysterious looking behind high palisades of wood which really conceal the most squalid houses and over which flutter unending strips of prayer rags) or in the larger temples, importuning Heaven with voice and nstrument. None of the encampments or buildings have been set down with any
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attempt at order or regularity and any one pitches his tent or home where he pleases. The whole town is built of wood, which is amazingly cheap and a huge amount of which is brought in from the mountains every day. It is at the same time the principal material of fuel. I believe that for the annual payment to the Amban of a fee of 15 taels (45s.) as much wood may be cut as one likes, except on the Bogdo Ula, which is Government property and also sacred, and where, in seven valleys at any rate, all trees and animals are left untouched, no shooting whatever being allowed.
I arrived at Urga at the time of the annual race festival, which lasts a fortnight and is held at the first tai on the road to Kiakhta (20 miles to the north). As the Bogdo attends the races, which are said to attract a unique gathering of Mongol Princes from all parts of Mongolia, I should have paid a flying visit to them had it not been for the extreme inhospitality of the weather which would have made camping out a misery.
The Bogdo was described in 1902: "His skin is as dark as that of a native of India; he seemed about 35 years old impressed with the cruel bestial expression
of his face."
Like so many of the Mongol Princes who can afford to do so and who are able to procure the stuff, be is said to drink very heavily, and indeed to be more usually drunk thau sober. Contrary to all rules he is married, and is the first Bogdo to have taken this step.
Uliassutai, August 17.-The Russian Consul told me that he had seen the Dalai Lama at Urga, and that the whole trouble between His Holiness and the Bogdo was due to the latter being a married man, for on his arrival the Dalai Lama had asked what the Bogdo meant by disobeying the rule. The Bogdo was furious and refused for some time to return the Dalai Lama's call. When at last persuaded to do so, he insisted on his wife accompanying him which made the breach of relations still wider.
This action of the Bogdo in establishing a precedent may have far-reaching results and may cause a permanent split between Lhassa and Urga. This should not be lost sight of in view of the huge influence exercised by the Bogdo over the whole of Mongolia and of the influence which the Russians know how to exercise over the Bogdo.
These come
The Chinese garrison at Urga is small and only consists of 250 men. from Isüanhuafu in Chih-li, whither they return four times a-year to receive pay. They There is no artillery are most inefficient, and are armed with the old pattern of rifle. except for some old guns for saluting. The Russian garrison consists of sixty-two Cossacks and some "old" cannon.
This is
Trade in Urga unfortunately for everyone is undergoing a wave of depression and there does not seem to be any prospect of an improvement. The chief trade is that of the collection of wool, skins, &c., and the cause of the depression is the glut of wool in This glut the world's markets so that the merchants cannot get rid of their stocks. seems to come from the fact that the export of wool from other producing countries bas increased, and that this can be put on the market before the Mongolian wool. due to the defective means of communication. Foreign and Chinese merchants are badly hit alike. In Urga there are several Chinese engaged in buying for foreign Tien-tsin firms. There is one for Messrs. Wilson and Co., who were, I believe, losers to the amount of several tens of thousands of dollars last year in this wool trade. Only one English firm is represented in Urga by a foreigner. The firm is Messrs. Reichardt and Co. (of New York). Their representative was formerly an Englishman, but is now a Dutchman. He has to trade through the Russo-Chinese Bank.
The depression in the wool trade has spread to every business for everyone has less money to spend. The Mongols are especially badly hit, for they can find no outlet At the end of the Russo-Japanese war they were for their large amount of wool, exceedingly well off and had plenty of silver in their pockets from the sale of ponies and oxen to the Russians and Japanese. This money has all been spent, and the distress caused by their poverty has brought about the formation of brigand bands in the mountains round Urga. These bands arc, I believe, solely due to the depression of trade.
Urga (political).
a matter of
The day after arriving at Urga I called at the Russian Bank on business. The young Manager, M. Stephanow, speaks excellent English, learnt in Shanghae where he has served; he has also been in Peking and Kalgan. I was able to establish good relations with him and a few days later asked him to tell me how many Cossacks there were in the Consulate guard. He replied that there were sixty, that,
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