ransvestia

suddenly circled and put down right in the middle of it. As we rolled to a stop I saw that we were at a sort of "settlement" which consisted of a central building which turned out to be the kitchen and dining room, surrounded by about 25 Mongolian Yurts, very much the same type of building that we had slept in in a couple of places in Afghanistan. After all they were the standard accomodations in Genghis Khans day and he spread them all over the Eurasian area that he conquered. They were a sort of round wooden fence like a corral with wooden staves running from the top of the "fence" up to join a circle at the top. Around this structure and over the top heavy sheets of felt were tied with ropes and then covered with canvas. They were pretty cool in summer and warm in winter.

This encampment was "home" for four days from which we trekked out on the typical bumpy bus ride to see the "sights." These con- sisted of a 40-mile bus trip to visit the sand dunes. That sounds kind of weird to be in the middle of the Gobi Desert and then have to drive 40 miles to see sand dunes, but I'm Virginia Prince and that's the way it was; and these "Mongolian Moments" were not brought to you by Shell Oil Co. The dunes were very interesting though. A gen- tle wind was blowing and it would blow up the windward side of the dune picking up grains of sand and as it came to the ridge along the top the lowered pressure on the leeward side (much as above an air- plane wing) caused the grains to fall back to the surface. This process, carried on continuously, is what causes the dunes to migrate at an appreciable rate almost as though they were all one entity in- stead of an infinite number of sand grains acting independently.

Another excursion took us to a camel breeding station 30 miles more of bumps. But when we got there we found a couple of families, two yurts and about 40 head of camels and herds of sheep. Nothing would do but that all of us should ride a camel for a few feet and have our pictures taken. I was dared, so naturally Iw as the first one aboard. Those are some weird creatures both in the way they get up and down nearly pitching you off and in their gait. Camels are also very nasty, too, you must get on them on their left side. They'll bite or lunge away if you try it on the right side.

After our Gobi adventure it was back to Ulan Bator for another night and then another long bus ride to a disappointment. We were headed for Kara Korum which was Genghis Khan's home base from which he took off on his depredation of much of the known world. I had expected to see more ruins comparable to those of Egypt, Turkey,