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Page 11.

rest in Churin.  They guarded only the road leading to Urga, because they thought they could only be attacked from that side, but the Mongols, Buriats and Russian soldiers crossed through the desert at night, going around the rocks, and attacked the Chinese from the Kalgan side which was not guarded.  The result was that the Chinese were caught between two fires and [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] thousands of them were killed.  When I passed there, there were still hundreds of bits of uniforms, buttons, and skulls lying about and my chauffeur told me that the decayed bones contain [[strikethrough]] sulphur [[/strikethrough]] phosphor^[[us]] and that this was shining on dark nights.  Anyhow I never did like passing over these rocks at nights.  There is a big monastery amongst the rocks housing hundreds of lamas.

In summer time the road from Churin to Urga is the best part of the journey leading through wooded hills and mountains but in winter it is the worst part.  The snow collects in drifts between the hills and the road to the valleys is impassable.  During the winter season the cars usually wait till they are 20 or more in Churin and then they all start together.  With about 3-400 passengers you can make a road through the deepest snow or lift out a [[underlined]] car which has got stuck [[/underlined]], if they all work together.  I arrived in Churin one bitter winter evening and found the place full of Chinese cars, which all left together the next morning.  My russian Chauffeur suggested that we trail behind the bunch which we did.  About an hour afterwards some of [[underlined]] the Chinese cars got stuck in the snow [[/underlined]] and we stopped also.  A Chinaman came to me and told me he was the headman of the bunch, he said that they had engaged a Mongolian guide and they all participated in his pay.  He asked whether I was willing to share $3.-. each and would help them, the same as they would help me if I got stuck.  I agreed and we helped to dig out the Chinese cars.  Towards evening the headman suggested that our car went first, because ours was the lightest to find out road conditions which we promptly did.  Cru^[[i]]sing down a hill, we got nicely stuck in a valley and yelled out to the others to come and help.  We waited for an hour and then saw to

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