ulan taiga with darkhat ola lay behind us. we went forward veryrapidly because the mongol plains began here, free from theimpediments of mountains. everywhere splendid grazing landsstretched away. in places there were groves of larch. we crossedsome very rapid streams but they were not deep and they had hardbeds. after two days of travel over the darkhat plain we beganmeeting soyots driving their cattle rapidly toward the northwestinto orgarkha ola. they communicated to us very unpleasant news.
the bolsheviki from the irkutsk district had crossed the mongolianborder, captured the russian colony at khathyl on the southernshore of lake kosogol and turned, off south toward muren kure, arussian settlement beside a big lamaite monastery sixty miles southof kosogol. the mongols told us there were no russian troopsbetween khathyl and muren kure, so we decided to pass between thesetwo points to reach van kure farther to the east. we took leave ofour soyot guide and, after having sent three scouts in advance,moved forward. from the mountains around the kosogol we admiredthe splendid view of this broad alpine lake. it was set like asapphire in the old gold of the surrounding hills, chased withlovely bits of rich dark forestry. at night we approached khathylwith great precaution and stopped on the shore of the river thatflows from kosogol, the yaga or egingol. we found a mongol whoagreed to transport us to the other bank of the frozen stream andto lead us by a safe road between khathyl and muren kure.
everywhere along the shore of the river were found large obo andsmall shrines to the demons of the stream.
"why are there so many obo?" we asked the mongol.
"it is the river of the devil, dangerous and crafty," replied themongol. "two days ago a train of carts went through the ice andthree of them with five soldiers were lost."we started to cross. the surface of the river resembled a thickpiece of looking-glass, being clear and without snow. our horseswalked very carefully but some fell and floundered before theycould regain their feet. we were leading them by the bridle. withbowed heads and trembling all over they kept their frightened eyesever on the ice at their feet. i looked down and understood theirfear. through the cover of one foot of transparent ice one couldclearly see the bottom of the river. under the lighting of themoon all the stones, the holes and even some of the grasses weredistinctly visible, even though the depth was ten metres and more.
the yaga rushed under the ice with a furious speed, swirling andmarking its course with long bands of foam and bubbles. suddenly ijumped and stopped as though fastened to the spot. along thesurface of the river ran the boom of a cannon, followed by a secondand a third.
"quicker, quicker!" cried our mongol, waving us forward with hishand.
another cannon boom and a crack ran right close to us. the horsesswung back on their haunches in protest, reared and fell, many ofthem striking their heads severely on the ice. in a second itopened up two feet wide, so that i could follow its jagged coursealong the surface. immediately up out of the opening the waterspread over the ice with a rush.
"hurry, hurry!" shouted the guide.
with great difficulty we forced our horses to jump over thiscleavage and to continue on further. they trembled and disobeyedand only the strong lash forced them to forget this panic of fearand go on.
when we were safe on the farther bank and well into the woods, ourmongol guide recounted to us how the river at times opens in thismysterious way and leaves great areas of clear water. all the menand animals on the river at such times must perish. the furiouscurrent of cold water will always carry them down under the ice.
at other times a crack has been known to pass right under a horseand, where he fell in with his front feet in the attempt to getback to the other side, the crack has closed up and ground his legsor feet right off.
the valley of kosogol is the crater of an extinct volcano. itsoutlines may be followed from the high west shore of the lake.
however, the plutonic force still acts and, asserting the glory ofthe devil, forces the mongols to build obo and offer sacrifices athis shrines. we spent all the night and all the next day hurryingaway eastward to avoid a meeting with the reds and seeking goodpasturage for our horses. at about nine o'clock in the evening afire shone out of the distance. my friend and i made toward itwith the feeling that it was surely a mongol yurta beside which wecould camp in safety. we traveled over a mile before making outdistinctly the lines of a group of yurtas. but nobody came out tomeet us and, what astonished us more, we were not surrounded by theangry black mongolian dogs with fiery eyes. still, from thedistance we had seen the fire and so there must be someone there.
we dismounted from our horses and approached on foot. from out ofthe yurta rushed two russian soldiers, one of whom shot at me withhis pistol but missed me and wounded my horse in the back throughthe saddle. i brought him to earth with my mauser and the otherwas killed by the butt end of my friend's rifle. we examined thebodies and found in their pockets the papers of soldiers of thesecond squadron of the communist interior defence. here we spentthe night. the owners of the yurtas had evidently run away, forthe red soldiers had collected and packed in sacks the property ofthe mongols. probably they were just planning to leave, as theywere fully dressed. we acquired two horses, which we found in thebushes, two rifles and two automatic pistols with cartridges. inthe saddle bags we also found tea, tobacco, matches and cartridges--all of these valuable supplies to help us keep further hold on ourlives.
two days later we were approaching the shore of the river uri whenwe met two russian riders, who were the cossacks of a certainataman sutunin, acting against the bolsheviki in the valley of theriver selenga. they were riding to carry a message from sutunin tokaigorodoff, chief of the anti-bolsheviki in the altai region.
they informed us that along the whole russian-mongolian border thebolshevik troops were scattered; also that communist agitators hadpenetrated to kiakhta, ulankom and kobdo and had persuaded thechinese authorities to surrender to the soviet authorities all therefugees from russia. we knew that in the neighborhood of urga andvan kure engagements were taking place between the chinese troopsand the detachments of the anti-bolshevik russian general baronungern sternberg and colonel kazagrandi, who were fighting for theindependence of outer mongolia. baron ungern had now been twicedefeated, so that the chinese were carrying on high-handed in urga,suspecting all foreigners of having relations with the russiangeneral.
we realized that the whole situation was sharply reversed. theroute to the pacific was closed. reflecting very carefully overthe problem, i decided that we had but one possible exit left. wemust avoid all mongolian cities with chinese administration, crossmongolia from north to south, traverse the desert in the southernpart of the principality of jassaktu khan, enter the gobi in thewestern part of inner mongolia, strike as rapidly as possiblethrough sixty miles of chinese territory in the province of kansuand penetrate into tibet. here i hoped to search out one of theenglish consuls and with his help to reach some english port inindia. i understood thoroughly all the difficulties incident tosuch an enterprise but i had no other choice. it only remained tomake this last foolish attempt or to perish without doubt at thehands of the boisheviki or languish in a chinese prison. when iannounced my plan to my companions, without in any way hiding fromthem all its dangers and quixotism, all of them answered veryquickly and shortly: "lead us! we will follow."one circumstance was distinctly in our favor. we did not fearhunger, for we had some supplies of tea, tobacco and matches and asurplus of horses, saddles, rifles, overcoats and boots, which werean excellent currency for exchange. so then we began to initiatethe plan of the new expedition. we should start to the south,leaving the town of uliassutai on our right and taking thedirection of zaganluk, then pass through the waste lands of thedistrict of balir of jassaktu khan, cross the naron khuhu gobi andstrike for the mountains of boro. here we should be able to take along rest to recuperate the strength of our horses and ofourselves. the second section of our journey would be the passagethrough the western part of inner mongolia, through the littlegobi, through the lands of the torguts, over the khara mountains,across kansu, where our road must be chosen to the west of thechinese town of suchow. from there we should have to enter thedominion of kuku nor and then work on southward to the head watersof the yangtze river. beyond this i had but a hazy notion, whichhowever i was able to verify from a map of asia in the possessionof one of the officers, to the effect that the mountain chains tothe west of the sources of the yangtze separated that river systemfrom the basin of the brahmaputra in tibet proper, where i expectedto be able to find english assistance.