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in exchange an Urga tea brick which had cost us 30 cents but which we priced here at 60 cents.
A man from Kweihuacheng was in camp; he was conveying 10,000 sheep to Kweihuacheng for a dealer. He had paid 1 t. 30 c. a-piece in Uliassutai and said they would fetch from 2 taels upwards at market. They were going very slowly so as to get fat en route, and were expected to reach Kweihuacheng in about two and a-half months' time. The man in charge of them had some difficulty because on reaching the other bank of the river he found four were missing. On returning to the Tai to complain to the waterman he found the Mongol official eating mutton and accused him of having stolen the four. It seemed that the Mongol official was really guilty.
Leaving in a north-westerly direction up a gently sloping valley covered with grass, down which rushed a small stream, we reached after some 11 miles, a vast plain lying it seemed among the mountain tops. Keeping along this for another 7 miles we reached Dagangal camp. It was bitterly cold at the height at which we were; the first snows were already lying on the mountain tops, and water in a cup of water left outside the tent overnight was frozen solid before morning.
August 15.-We passed on the road sixteen ox-carts taking wood down to Hochertu for the Russian trader who is to build a house there.
We descended from the high platean to Tumart, a distance of 12 miles. The valley into which we descended was well wooded-that is to say on the slopes facing the north not on those facing south.
Continuing down the valley we reached Shuruk after another 16 miles. Here we found another convoy of 400 ponies going down to the capital from Ili. Although there seems to be a great deal of movement this year as regards ponies for military purposes I was told that it was not extraordinary.
Turning north at Shuruk we kept up a well watered valley for 6 miles, as far as a couple of Lama Temples, where we turned towards the north-west up a mountain pass reaching the next Tai of Hwasherat before the top of the pass was reached. The distance was some 12 miles but the camels came by a shorter road (across the mountains) than the cart used. IIwasherat is said to be only 10 miles from Uliassutai. The night was again intensely cold and water froze solid in a cup overnight.
August 16th.-A few of the Mongols round here have cut off their pigtails; they wear their hair long and woolly. Perhaps Russian influence has had something to do with this change. Just after crossing the second pass from camp we obtained out first view of Uliassutai lying among the mountains some five miles to the north of us. Descending sharply from the mountains we reached the hollow in which the colony lies and crossed the many channelled Bogdin Gol. None of the channels of the stream with the exception of that which is nearest to the colony and which is the main one present any difficulties.
Here the stream is 20 yards wide and some 34 feet deep: the water rushes down at a tremendous pace. It is crossed by a narrow wooden bridge some 6 feet above the water and which rests on five hexagonal shaped piles filled in with rocks. Crossing this, the green dragon bridge, and passing a small shrine and a tablet which records the name of the bridge we were in the lanes of Uliassutai.
The settlement (for I wish to avoid the use of the word town which name hardly applies) lies on the plain on the north bank of the Bogdin Gol; it is backed by fine mountains which rise less than a stone's throw from the settlement, for the plain is only half a-mile wide at this point. Both to east and west the colony lies exposed, to the east the plain for a mile, as far indeed as the mountains, becomes as much as a mile broad, to the west it narrows to a few hundred yards and down this passage the Bogdin Gol rushes. Uliassutai has many points of comparison with Urga, the chief being the abundance of water, a good supply of wood in the neighbourhood and the all-pervading squalor. The water is, however, bad for drinking purposes on account of the wool washing which goes on in the stream.
The settlement consists of a number of houses built of wood or mud or of both usually with large yards attached to them, each being surrounded by a palisade of wooden poles 12 feet high. Sometimes these palisades only conceal miserable yourts. Lanes, only not so dirty as those of Urga inasmuch as there seems to be some attempt at sanitation, run in all directions with no attempt at regularity and being flanked by lines of palisades make the streets singularly uninteresting. After rains these lanes become long pools. There is only one short street which may be termed a street. It is some 300 yards long and on either side are to be found the Chinese and Russian shops: the police stations are also in this street. There is a torlorn desolate appearance about it which testifies to the absolute stagnation of trade. This is confirmed by every Chiucse merchant. The Russian traders, who number seven or eight and whose shops,
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eased from the Chinese, for they neither own a settlement of their own nor are they allowed to buy land, are side by side with those of the Chinese, share in the general depression for there is no money with the Mongols and therefore no one to buy. It seemed to me possible that the Russians might be getting all the trade and the Chinese none but the latter said this was not so for the Russians sold different goods to what they did. Most of the Chinese traders are Chih-li (Peking or Tien-tsin) men. They sell silks, boots, hats, Chinese robes, snuff bottles, Lamaistic instruments, sheep-skins. Some few sell furs but these are scarce and bad; sheep and goat-skin coats are cheap and good. I bought a long one for only 9 taels (27s.). A few Chinese merchants are engaged in the wool trade but it may be said that this and the hair trade are to all intents and purposes monopolised by the Russian traders who have erected sheds for cleaning and dying these in all the neighbouring villages as well as in that of the Bogdin Gol. Dr. Gatrell said in 1902, "it is said that in the country round. Uliassutai there are at least eighty Russian traders." With the wool and hair trade entirely in Russian hands the life of Uliassutai is gradually being squeezed from the Chinese and it makes no difference to the Russian shops whether they do a thriving business or not for their gain can be made elsewhere, while to the Chinese an improvement in business is of vital importance.
The Chinese settlers pay no rent or taxes; anyone who comes can get laud free of charge and can build a house on it or clse rent one of the many empty shops whose shuttered fronts and grass-grown roofs add to the melancholy appearance of the main street. No wonder then that with this state of idleness, plenty to sell but no one to buy, for during the three days I spent in the colony I never saw more than two or three people in the streets and no business whatever done, traders have maintained the impoverishing vice of opium smoking; of the twenty shops or more that I entered I found none wherein at least three of the men behind the counter were not advanced smokers. The Acting Tartar General had just issued a belated Proclamation against its sale or use but that matters little when everyone can procure it so easily from his home in the south.
A mile to the east of the trading settlement and along the valley is a palisaded inclosure, which is the "fortress" and seat of Government. This fort is a square, the sides of which are about 500 yards long. The walls are formed of a double row of larch poles 20 feet high, the two rows being about 10 feet apart. The space between is filled with stones, mud, bricks, and rubbish. There is a gate on every side but the north. The fort is surrounded by a dry moat and there is a wooden bridge at each of the gates.
This moat is some 15 feet deep and 50 feet broad; it could, I think, be filled from the river if necessary.
None of the ground between the two settlements is built on, except for an occasional miserable pourt, the plain being subject to floods from the Bogdin Gol, Numerous shallow channels of the stream have to be crossed by low bridges, consisting of planks raised a foot above the ground on low trestles.
The government is carried out by a Chiangchun (Tartar General), who has control over the whole of Northern Mongolia. This post is a Manchu appointment and the staff is Manchu. With the Chiangehün is associated a Mongol as assistant, but, as the Russian Consul told me, the Chinese Government take good care to select one of the dullest witted Princes for this post so as to keep entire control in their own hands. There are five offices: one for Russian trade, one for military purposes, one for internal All these offices are to be affairs, one for Mongol affairs, and the last for finance. found in the so-called fortress; the population of this fort is said to be 350, and as all are supposed to be soldiers this may be said to be the number of the "garrison."
The whole colony (ie., the two quarters) is a military settlement and no one is allowed to come either to trade or to an inn without a permit from the yamén. To come to trade a passport from the Board of Dependencies in Peking is necessary, and this, it is said, would be granted to any one, native or foreigner.
The colony does not grow at all, the wonder is that it does not decrease. In additition to the above-mentioned "garrison" there is said to be a force of 100 Mongol soldiers who never enter the town, but ride round the country by day, sleeping in their own yourts at night.
On reaching the settlement I went to the Chinese inn and was refused a room until we had visited the yamên. Being dirty and travelworn, I refused to go to call on the Governor until I had rested. This created some trouble, for the innkeper and his friends dared not disobey the instructions; however, the head of the police force arrived and put things straight. He was a delightful old man of over 70 with the
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