Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/230

 the small size of the body: the inhabitants make warm clothing of its winter coat, each skin fetching about 2s. 6d.

The third day after we had pitched our camp in the vicinity of Bathar Sheilun, a small detachment of Chinese soldiers, commanded by an officer, suddenly presented themselves before us, and demanded our passports. It appeared that the lamas of the temple, apprehending that we were Dungan spies, had given notice of our arrival at the neighbouring Chinese town of Bautu, whence the soldiers had been sent. They approached us in order of battle, with lighted fuses and drawn swords. But this farce was soon played out. We invited the officer to our tent, and showed him our Peking passport, which at once produced an impression. While a copy was being taken of this document, I entertained the officer with tea and Russian sugar, and presented him with a penknife, and we parted the best of good friends. We only discovered after their departure that the soldiers had carried away with them some of our smaller articles. From Bathar Sheilun we marched towards the mountains of Munni-ula which, as we have stated, form the westernmost termination of the proper In-shan. As the latter range is in all probability of one character throughout, a more detailed description of its western ridge may suffice for the whole.

Extending for nearly seventy miles between two valleys, one on the north and the other on the south (towards the Hoang-ho), the Munni-ula rises as a