NEW TRAVELS ON AN OLD TRAIL

The winter of 1918-19 we spent in and out of one of the most
interesting cities in the world. Peking, with its background of
history made vividly real by its splendid walls, its age-old temples
and its mysterious Forbidden City, has a personality of its own.

When we had been away for a month or two there was always a
delightful feeling of anticipation in returning to the city itself
and to our friends in its cosmopolitan community.

Moreover, at our house in Wu Liang Tajen Hutung, a baby boy and his
devoted nurse were waiting to receive us. Even at two years the
extraordinary facility with which he discovered frogs and bugs,
which, quite unknown to us, dwelt in the flower-filled courtyard,
showed the hereditary instincts of a born explorer.

That winter gave us an opportunity to see much of ancient China, for
we visited Shantung, traveled straight across the Provinces of Honan
and Hupeh, and wandered about the mountains of Che-kiang on a serow
hunt.

In February the equipment for our summer's work in Mongolia was on
its way across the desert by caravan. We had sent flour, bacon,
coffee, tea, sugar, butter and dried fruit, for these could be
purchased in Urga only at prohibitive prices. Even then, with camel
charges at fourteen cents a _cattie_ (1 1/3 lbs.), a fifty-pound
sack of flour cost us more than six dollars by the time it reached
Urga.

Charles Coltman at Kalgan very kindly relieved me of all the
transportation details. We had seen him several times in Peking
during the winter, and had planned the trip across the plains to
Urga as _une belle excursion_.

Mrs. Coltman was going, of course, as were Mr. and Mrs. "Ted"
MacCallie of Tientsin. "Mac" was a famous Cornell football star whom
I knew by reputation in my own college days. He was to take a
complete Delco electric lighting plant to Urga, with the hope of
installing it in the palace of the "Living God."

A soldier named Owen from the Legation guard in Peking was to drive
the Delco car, and I had two Chinese taxidermists, Chen and Kang,
besides Lu, our cook and camp boy.

Chen had been loaned to me by Dr. J. G. Andersson, Mining Adviser to
the Chinese Republic, and proved to be one of the best native
collectors whom I have ever employed. The Coltmans and MacCallies
were to stay only a few days in Urga, but they helped to make the
trip across Mongolia one of the most delightful parts of our
glorious summer.

We lef