i 3 4 CHINESE TURKESTAN 



blocks of floating ice. The day was dull and 

 windy, while the thermometer showed a temperature 

 of from 12 downwards at night. 



Here we were delayed one day by a gale of wind, 

 and afterwards the journey into Kuldja, which we 

 accomplished in three very easy marches, was made 

 unpleasant by the same cause, a tearing wind and 

 driving snow not being nice to ride against. Bliz- 

 zards are said to be the rule, not the exception, in 

 this part of the valley. 



We reached Kuldja on December 24th, and on 

 Christmas Day first heard of the Transvaal War. 

 The Russian postmaster told us of it, and gave us 

 all the news he could. He spoke German, which 

 language Morse also understood, and so we got a 

 considerable amount of information ; but being 

 derived from the Russian Official Gazette, which 

 only contains what the Government thinks proper 

 for the people to know, it was all so one-sided that 

 we ended by believing very little of it. 



We managed to hit off the severest winter known 

 for years, and as the real cold, 30 to 40 below zero, 

 was now setting in, we were glad to get a very fair 

 house, built during the Russian occupation of Kuldja. 

 The landlord was a most exorbitant scoundrel, a 

 Russian Sart, and began by asking five times the 

 rent which he eventually took. There is a coal- 

 mine some fifteen miles away, and so there was no 

 lack of fuel. Wood is scarce in the neighbourhood. 



