The Monticellonian., 1915-05-20

each side of the road, and in the grass blue larkspur and immense yell low hollyhocks. 1 was in the land where the kirghiz has his summer pasture, and often came upon whole clans that had just pitched their tents. It was many-colored picture of eamels, bulls and horses, of sheep sWarming among children, of kittens playing with one another's tails, of tents whose framework only was as yet put up. of heaps of felt carpet on the grass, of old wooden chests and antediluvian pots and jugs of sag ging leather lying promiscuously to- gether while the new home was not made. On this road the Chinese jug glers overlook me and camped very near where I slept one night. l was amused to see the old conjurer who had juggled he steaming samovar out of thin air hunting mournfully for bits of wood and roots to make that same samovar boil in real earnest
 Next day l came to the village of Jaiman Terekti and it's remarkable scenery. The River Baskau flows be- tween extraordinary banks, great bare rocks all squared and architectural in appearance giving the impression immense ancient fortresses over the stream. These squared and shelved rocks are characteristic of the country side and the geological formations, and they give much grandeur to what otherwise are quiet corners
 Among the Cossacks.
 Lepsinsk is what the Russians call medveZhy u,olok, bears corner, a place where in winter the wolves roam the main streets as if they did not distinguish it from their peculiar haunts. It is by post road 945 miles from Tashkent on the one hand and 1,040 miles from 0msk on the other roughly, 1000 miles from a railway station. It is high up on the noun tains on the Mongolian frontier. and lives life of its own=almost com. pletely unaware of what is happen ing in Russia and in Europe-a win dow on to Mongolia. local wit has called it-a ground-glass window.
 Lepsinsk is a Gossack settlement. All the young men are horsemen, have to serve their term in war and are liable to military service ''ithout any exemption or exception. All Cos sack families and Coss ack villages are brought u0 on these terms. The children ride bareback as soon as they can walk and jump. The little boys get their elder brothers uniforms cut down to wear.
 l spent many hours with the Cos sacks in the Lepsa valley, calling at cottages for food. A feckless folk you would call them, by the sight of their homes The women are very lazy and go to sleep after dinner, leaving all the dirty dishes on the table for 50,- 900 flies to fiuster around.
 Next day l went deep into the desert, into a land of smokes, eagles, snipe and lizards. I got my monday meal of koumiss in a Kirghiz yurt, borrowed a horse with which to get across the difficult lords, one of black, reed-groWn mud, the other of swift flowing water All day I plowed through ankledeep sand, and but for the fact that the sun was obscured by clouds I should have suffered much from heat. A it was, the dust and sand-laden wind was very trying. Early in the evening resolved 70 stop for the day, and found shelter in one of twenty tents all pitched beside one another in pleasant green pasture land which lay between two bends of the rivera yeritable oasis.
 It was a good resting place. An old man spread for me carpets and rugs and bade me sleep. and l lay down for an hour. In the meantime tea was made for me from some chips of Mongolian brick tea. The old kir- ghiz took a black block of this solidi- fled tea dust and cut it with an old razor
 After tea 1 went out and sat on a mound among the cattle, and watched the children drive in sheep and goats and cows, and the wives milk them all. It was scene of gayety and beauty