VIII. SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 154 IX. A CHANGE OF FIELD 176 X. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AS ILLUSTRATED BY LETTERS TO RELATIVES AND FRIENDS 228 XI. CLOSING LABOURS 256 XII. THE LAST DAYS 298 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PORTRAIT OF JAMES GILMOUR FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT TIENTSIN ON APRIL 1891 _Frontispiece_ A MONGOL ENCAMPMENT 109 A MONGOL CAMEL CART 139 A CHINESE MULE LITTER 156 JAMES GILMOUR EQUIPPED FOR HIS WALKING EXPEDITION IN MONGOLIA IN FEBRUARY 1884 159 JAMES GILMOUR'S TENT 245 MAPS 1. MAP ILLUSTRATING JAMES GILMOUR'S JOURNEYS ON THE GREAT PLAIN OF MONGOLIA 54 2. MAP ILLUSTRATING JAMES GILMOUR'S LABOURS IN EASTERN MONGOLIA 179 For readers of _James Gilmour of Mongolia_ not familiar with _Among the Mongols_, a new Edition of that Work has been prepared and published, price Two Shillings and Sixpence. JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA CHAPTER I EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION James Gilmour, of Mongolia, the son of James Gilmour and Elizabeth Pettigrew his wife, was born at Cathkin on Monday, June 12, 1843. He was the third in a family of six sons, all but one of whom grew up to manhood. His father was in very comfortable circumstances, and consequently James Gilmour never had the struggle with poverty through which so many of his great countrymen have had to pass. Cathkin, an estate of half a dozen farms in the parish of Carmunnock, is only five miles from Glasgow, and was owned by Humphrey Ewing Maclae, a retired India merchant, who resided in the substantial mansion-house on the estate. There were also the houses of a few residents, and a smithy and wright's workshops, for the convenience of the surrounding district. James Gilmour's father was the occupant of the wright's shop, as his father had been before him. His brother John, one of three who have survived him, has furnished the following interesting sketch of the family life in which James Gilmour was trained, and to which he owed so much of the charm and power which he manifested in later years:--