Old Tartar Trails. By A. S. Kent. (Shanghai : North
China Daily News and Herald. $6.)—This well-written book, illus- trated with photographs, is the record of a long journey through Outer Mongolia in 1914. The author crossed the Russian frontier at Verkhne Udinsk, went due south to Urga, the Mongol capital, and then steered westward, eventually traversing the Altai, and thus reaching Siberia to the south of Tomsk. The Mongols, who were a terror to Western Asia and Europe in the thirteenth century, have long since reverted to their primitive state as peaceful nomads. Mongolia, with Russian support, declared its independence in 1911 when China revolted against the Manchus, but Mr. Kent found that the capable Chinese traders, who had formerly conducted such commerce as Mongolia could boast, had not been replaced by the Russians. In the natural course of things it may be expected that the Chinese will resume their old position in this remote and sparsely inhabited country.
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