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Page 21.

[[underlined]] picnics into the country. [[/underlined]]  About 20 minutes ride from the town you are right amongst the high mountains with all kinds of trees, flowers like in Europe, even Edelweiss, any amount.  Clear icy cold springs and a very fine mountain air.  Or if you go in the southern [[strikethrough]] dire [[/strikethrough]] direction you go to the river Tola and live along the banks of the same.  The water is as clear as crystal and icy cold.  There are all kinds of fishes and with flies and grass^[[h]]oppers as bait, you can catch as many trout as you can eat.

Outer Mongolia is supposed to be rich in metals and coal=mines.  It is possible but in the present state of the country it would not be any good if these were opened up.  There are no rail=ways in the country and it seems that nobody wants them either.  Cer=tainly not the Mongols, the more the country is undeveloped, the more it will be left alone.  If they had a railway from the South, the Chinese would swamp them by their numbers and there would be an end of their feeding grounds for their cattle.  If the railway is built from the North, the same thing would happen from the Russian population.  But sooner or later Russia will build a railway from Werchne-Udinsk to Troiskosavsk to Urga, I suppose for strategical reasons.  The only mine I know of is the coal mine, about 20 miles from Urga, which supplies a soft coal for the electric light works.  It's no use for stoves and kitchens, it's too soft, besides the people in Urga are burning wood in the stoves.  There [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] is a go^[[l]]dmine in the northwest of Urga, which, how^[[e]]ver, produces very little gold.  During the Czar's regime [[strikethrough]] th [[/strikethrough]] the mine was worked by machinery, but when Baron Ungern took Urga he took away the machinery, transported it to Urga and used it for an electric plant.  I dont think that the gold mine is worked at all during the present time.  The Mongolian Government engaged a German Geologist some years ago and took him for a joyride through the country.  Near to every mountain the motorcar stopped and they asked the German, "Do you think that there is any gold in this mountain," and when he said, "How do I know without digging holes," they went on to the next mountain and repeated the question.