After wild sheep in the Altai and Mongolia; . for sugar and flour hadbeen bought at Barnaoul. Here the road ended,and henceforward everything had to be carried onhorseback. Ongudai is a small village, surrounded on allsides by hills, somewhat higher than those we hadpassed on our way, and inhabited by a few Russian 62 AFTER WILD SHEEP IN THE ALTAI officials, merchants, and converted Kalmuks. HereI made acquaintance with Mr. Meyer, the chief policeofficial of the district. He told us that horses wouldbe ready on the following day, which was spententirely in inspecting the ponies and dividing th
After wild sheep in the Altai and Mongolia; . for sugar and flour hadbeen bought at Barnaoul. Here the road ended,and henceforward everything had to be carried onhorseback. Ongudai is a small village, surrounded on allsides by hills, somewhat higher than those we hadpassed on our way, and inhabited by a few Russian 62 AFTER WILD SHEEP IN THE ALTAI officials, merchants, and converted Kalmuks. HereI made acquaintance with Mr. Meyer, the chief policeofficial of the district. He told us that horses wouldbe ready on the following day, which was spententirely in inspecting the ponies and dividing thepackages in one months stores, as we intended to fc- :j|y-| i ?-?! imsafttfg/£?\ THE LAST STATION. leave the remaining supplies at Kosh-Agatch, sendingJoseph for them when needed. We also hired, forthree roubles a pair, from the natives a large numberof leather saddle-bags, into which we placed ourprovisions. The ponies were carefully picked, espe-cially our mounts, and the start was fixed for themorning of the following day, June ONGUDAI 65 In the evening- we received a visit from the localpriest, Father Constantine. He had spent aboutthirty years at Ongudai and in the Kalmuk country,having been exiled to this place in his early days forsome political offence. He was most interesting inhis conversation, having thoroughly studied the Kal-muks, their language and ways, and having convertedmany to Christianity. He gave me a Russian-Kalmuk dictionary which he had compiled himself,and from which I extracted my available means ofconversation. He had crowned his studies bymarrying a Kalmuk girl, and was spending the fewyears that were left to him in educating his wifeand father-in-law, who lived in his house. The same evening we secured the services, fortwenty roubles a month, of a Russian, Nicholas byname, who was to act as interpreter, and whom wefound useful in every emergency. A distance ofover 200 miles separated us yet from the Siberianfrontier—a distance which we cov
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