We covered the tent with snow, dug deep, long ditches in the drifts and forced our camels to lie down in them by shouting the "Dzuk! Dzuk!" command to kneel.

Then we brought our packs into the tent.
My companion rebelled against the thought of spending a cold night with a stove hard by.
"I am going out to look for firewood," said he very decisively; and at that took up the ax and started.

He returned after an hour with a big section of a telegraph pole.
"You, Jenghiz Khans," said he, rubbing his frozen hands, "take your axes and go up there to the left on the mountain and you will find the telegraph poles that have been cut down.

I made acquaintance with the old Jagasstai and he showed me the poles." Just a little way from us the line of the Russian telegraphs passed, that which had connected Irkutsk with Uliassutai before the days of the Bolsheviki and which the Chinese had commanded the Mongols to cut down and take the wire.

These poles are now the salvation of travelers crossing the pass.