The following evening we arrived at Khathyl, a small Russiansettlement of ten scattered houses in the valley of the Egingol orYaga, which here takes its waters from the Kosogol half a mileabove the village. The Kosogol is a huge Alpine lake, deep andcold, eighty-five miles in length and from ten to thirty in width.
On the western shore live the Darkhat Soyots, who call it Hubsugul,the Mongols, Kosogol. Both the Soyots and Mongols consider this aterrible and sacred lake. It is very easy to understand thisprejudice because the lake lies in a region of present volcanicactivity, where in the summer on perfectly calm sunny days itsometimes lashes itself into great waves that are dangerous notonly to the native fishing boats but also to the large Russianpassenger steamers that ply on the lake. In winter also itsometimes entirely breaks up its covering of ice and gives offgreat clouds of steam. Evidently the bottom of the lake issporadically pierced by discharging hot springs or, perhaps, bystreams of lava. Evidence of some great underground convulsionlike this is afforded by the mass of killed fish which at timesdams the outlet river in its shallow places. The lake isexceedingly rich in fish, chiefly varieties of trout and salmon,and is famous for its wonderful "white fish," which was previouslysent all over Siberia and even down into Manchuria so far asMoukden. It is fat and remarkably tender and produces fine caviar.
Another variety in the lake is the white khayrus or trout, which inthe migration season, contrary to the customs of most fish, goesdown stream into the Yaga, where it sometimes fills the river frombank to bank with swarms of backs breaking the surface of thewater. However, this fish is not caught, because it is infestedwith worms and is unfit for food. Even cats and dogs will nottouch it. This is a very interesting phemonenon and was beinginvestigated and studied by Professor Dorogostaisky of theUniversity at Irkutsk when the coming of the Bolsheviki interruptedhis work.
In Khathyl we found a panic. The Russian detachment of ColonelKazagrandi, after having twice defeated the Bolsheviki and well onits march against Irkutsk, was suddenly rendered impotent andscattered through internal strife among the officers. TheBolsheviki took advantage of this situation, increased their forcesto one thousand men and began a forward movement to recover whatthey had lost, while the remnants of Colonel Kazagrandi'sdetachment were retreating on Khathyl, where he determined to makehis last stand against the Reds. The inhabitants were loadingtheir movable property with their families into carts and scurryingaway from the town, leaving all their cattle and horses towhomsoever should have the power to seize and hold them. One partyintended to hide in the dense larch forest and the mountain ravinesnot far away, while another party made southward for Muren Kure andUliassutai. The morning following our arrival the Mongol officialreceived word that the Red troops had outflanked ColonelKazagrandi's men and were approaching Khathyl. The Mongol loadedhis documents and his servants on eleven camels and left his yamen.
Our Mongol guides, without ever saying a word to us, secretlyslipped off with him and left us without camels. Our situationthus became desperate. We hastened to the colonists who had notyet got away to bargain with them for camels, but they hadpreviously, in anticipation of trouble, sent their herds to distantMongols and so could do nothing to help us. Then we betookourselves to Dr. V. G. Gay, a veterinarian living in the town,famous throughout Mongolia for his battle against rinderpest. Helived here with his family and after being forced to give up hisgovernment work became a cattle dealer. He was a most interestingperson, clever and energetic, and the one who had been appointedunder the Czarist regime to purchase all the meat supplies fromMongolia for the Russian Army on the German Front. He organized ahuge enterprise in Mongolia but when the Bolsheviki seized power in1917 he transferred his allegiance and began to work with them.
Then in May, 1918, when the Kolchak forces drove the Bolsheviki outof Siberia, he was arrested and taken for trial. However, he wasreleased because he was looked upon as the single individual toorganize this big Mongolian enterprise and he handed to AdmiralKolchak all the supplies of meat and the silver formerly receivedfrom the Soviet commissars. At this time Gay had been serving asthe chief organizer and supplier of the forces of Kazagrandi.
When we went to him, he at once suggested that we take the onlything left, some poor, broken-down horses which would be able tocarry us the sixty miles to Muren Kure, where we could securecamels to return to Uliassutai. However, even these were beingkept some distance from the town so that we should have to spendthe night there, the night in which the Red troops were expected toarrive. Also we were much astonished to see that Gay was remainingthere with his family right up to the time of the expected arrivalof the Reds. The only others in the town were a few Cossacks, whohad been ordered to stay behind to watch the movements of the Redtroops. The night came. My friend and I were prepared either tofight or, in the last event, to commit suicide. We stayed in asmall house near the Yaga, where some workmen were living who couldnot, and did not feel it necessary to, leave. They went up on ahill from which they could scan the whole country up to the rangefrom behind which the Red detachment must appear. From thisvantage point in the forest one of the workmen came running in andcried out:
"Woe, woe to us! The Reds have arrived. A horseman is gallopingfast through the forest road. I called to him but he did notanswer me. It was dark but I knew the horse was a strange one.""Do not babble so," said another of the workmen. "Some Mongol rodeby and you jumped to the conclusion that he was a Red.""No, it was not a Mongol," he replied. "The horse was shod. Iheard the sound of iron shoes on the road. Woe to us!""Well," said my friend, "it seems that this is our finish. It is asilly way for it all to end."He was right. Just then there was a knock at our door but it wasthat of the Mongol bringing us three horses for our escape.
Immediately we saddled them, packed the third beast with our tentand food and rode off at once to take leave of Gay.
In his house we found th............