It was cut into two parts by the road along which the prostrate telegraph poles now lay, as the stumps of varying heights and long stretches of wire completed the debris.

This destruction of the telegraph line between Irkutsk and Uliassutai was necessary and incident to the aggressive Chinese policy in Mongolia.
Soon we began to meet large herds of sheep, which were digging through the snow to the dry but very nutritious grass.

In some places yaks and oxen were seen on the high slopes of the mountains.

Only once, however, did we see a shepherd, for all of them, spying us first, had made off to the mountains or hidden in the ravines.

We did not even discover any yurtas along the way.