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much for me. I have slept many a time out on the snow in Mongolia. If you put a felt mat on the surface and your sheep-skin sleeping bag over it, it is quite warm inside. You only have to be careful to place the sleeping bag in such a position that your feet face the direction of where the wind comes from, so that the wind does not blow into your sleeping bag. But the Siberian cold is worse than the mongolian one and I therefore followed the chauffeur's advice and engaged a sledge with a driver and 2 horses. We started out early in the morning and I must say that in spite of the cold, that two days' journey was the most pleasant one which I have ever made. The road was thickly covered with snow and led through tremendous pine forest. Fortunately there was not a breath of wind, with 40 degrees cold the slightest wind makes staying outside in the open very unpleasant. After a few hours drive we came to the frozen-over Selenga and from there on until Werchne-Udinsk we drove on the ice all the time. It certainly was cold and we stopped every two or three hours at the small settlements built along the river. The Russians and Buriats living there are very hospitable. As I had been careful in Urga and had bought a good supply of tea and sugar, I was doubly welcome whereever we stopped, for the Russians had not tasted tea nor sugar for years. There were continually caravans passing their houses, bringing these luxuries from Russia to Mongolia; the Russians are very liberal in supplying the Mongols with tea and sugar but the peasants along the road never got any. We usually stayed till we finished our tea and left some behind which was more appreciated than money. This warming up in the houses was very necessary. The river bed of the Selenga is bordered by tremendous cliffs covered with pine trees. On a windless winter day the big pine tree are covered with hoar frost and look very beautiful. The river looks very strange although part of it is covered with a very thick layer of ice, yet there are open spaces every few hundred yards, where you see high columns of steam rising up in the air, these are hot springs in the river, I suppose. This is the third road to Urga.

Transcription Notes:
Paragraph 2, line 9: "mongolian" is typed with a small "m" but the "m" is double underlined to show it should be a capital. Paragraph 1, line 12: "in spite" is typewritten as one word but a handwritten line is inserted to indicate it should be two words. Paragraph 1, line 17: "cold the" is typewritten as one word with a handwritten line inserted to indicate it should be two words. Paragraph 1, line 18: "staying" was originally typed "staiing" but the first "i" has been struckover with a "y." Paragraph 1, line 25: "hospitable" was originally typewritten "hospitalle" but the first "l" has been struckover with a "b." Paragraph 1, line 29: "continually caravans": handwritten symbols indicate that these two words should be reversed. Paragraph 1, line 32: "supplying": the "su" has been typed over other letters, but I can't tell what the original letters were. Paragraph 1, line 34: "stayed" and "finished": the "ed" on each word has been added by hand. Paragraph 1, line 40: "very beautiful" was typewritten as 2 words with a handwritten line inserted to indicate it should be two words.