5<!56 ACROSS THE DESERT 



Turki town. Everywhere trees showed how 

 beautiful an Eden this must appear to the parched 

 traveller arriving from the desert during the 

 summer months, with its glittering springs by 

 which the oasis is irrigated. 



The whole of this region is extremely interesting, 

 whether from an ethnographical or from a geo- 

 graphical point of view. From neither standpoint 

 am 1 qualified to speak, being but a field naturalist 

 with a love of travel. Judging by the intensely 

 interesting article which my friend Mr. Douglas 

 Carruthers contributed to the June number of the 

 Geographical Journal (1912) entitled " Exploration 

 in North-west Mongolia and Dzungaria," tlie book 

 on which he and Mr. Jack Miller are engaged 

 will add to his already great reputation and tear 

 the veil from w^hat is practically a terra incog- 

 nita to the average educated Englishman. 



Leaving Hami on the day following our arrival, 

 we travelled all night and reached Erpu on 

 January 13th. This again is a charming little 

 place with many trees, about which flew jackdaws, 

 crows, and pigeons in great numbers. Our inn- 

 keeper informed us that he had been to England, 

 but on a little cross-examination it transpired that 

 he had not got farther than India. We were 

 often greeted with tliis tale of wonderful journeys, 

 but " England " usually turned out to be Hong- 

 kong or Shanghai. 



That by which I chiefly remember Erpu was 

 a magnificent wapiti head adorning the mud walls 

 of a little mosque. It was just the sort I had 

 hoped to shoot ! A fifteen -pointer with long, 

 cur\ iiig brow^s and fine tops, it must have reached 



