overwhelming forces.

After an hour of very difficult road we began to ascend the mountain and
soon arrived on a high plateau covered with trees.

"After all, Soyots are not a too peaceful people," I remarked,
approaching the Governor.

He looked at me very sharply and replied:

"It was not Soyots who did the killing."

He was right. It was the Abakan Tartars in Soyot clothes who killed the
Bolsheviki. These Tartars were running their herds of cattle and horses
down out of Russia through Urianhai to Mongolia. They had as their
guide and negotiator a Kalmuck Lamaite. The following morning we were
approaching a small settlement of Russian colonists and noticed some
horsemen looking out from the woods. One of our young and brave Tartars
galloped off at full speed toward these men in the wood but soon wheeled
and returned with a reassuring smile.

"All right," he exclaimed, laughing, "keep right on."

We continued our travel on a good broad road along a high wooden fence
surrounding a meadow filled with a fine herd of wapiti or izubr, which
the Russian colonists breed for the horns that are so valuable in the
velvet for sale to Tibetan and Chinese medicine dealers. These horns,
when boiled and dried, are called panti and are sold to the Chinese at
very high prices.