Across the Roof of the World. 



Everyone in the village took a vast amount of interest in us, 

 though we were not of a species entirely unknown to them, since 

 Kulja has a small Russian population, the presence of which and 

 the passing of sundry European travellers has made the natives 

 more or less acquainted with the Occident. The culinary depart- 

 ment was full of the curious-minded, intent on learning whence I 

 had come and what were my objects in journeying hither. The 

 idea of one undergoing so much toil and tribulation for the sake of 

 big game shooting was quite beyond them, and, judging from their 

 expressions of incredulity, Rasul's representations on the subject 

 must have caused much speculation in their untutored minds. 



It rained, snowed, and blew hard during the night, with the 

 result that there was a wretched outlook on the morning of 

 November ist. I had been successful in hiring fresh ponies in 

 the village and started at 9 o'clock with Numgoon and another 

 Kalmuk, leaving the baggage to follow in charge of Giyani and 

 Rasul. It was raining hard and the wind howled as I pushed on 

 to the ferry over the Hi River, 12 miles down the valley, cantering 

 most of the distance. 



I crossed the Hi in large, flat-bottomed boats, worked by 

 horses which have to swim the river in the execution of the task, 

 though how they manage to endure the intense cold would be a 

 question difficult to answer. One of the ferry horses was dead 

 on the opposite bank, frozen stiff as a plank, a silent witness to 

 this cruel work. There was much water in the river despite the 

 lateness of the season, and on reaching the Kulja bank we had 

 some difficulty in off-loading the horses as the big boat could not 

 be brought sufficiently close in to allow of the animals being 

 disembarked on to dry land. The consequence was they had to be 

 taken out of the barge into the water and then ridden ashore, 

 a proceeding occasioning much plunging and bucking on the part 

 of refractory steeds. The wretched ferry horses who had hauled 

 us across presented a pitiable spectacle as they stood shivering in 

 the wind, but then there is no S.P.C.A. in tliis far-away corner 

 of the world. 



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