Across the Roof of the World. 



I dressed thinking of pleasantcr occupations than a trek across 

 Asia in Decemhcr, and wondering what it would be like in the 

 dreary month of January. We loaded up the baggage and started 

 at 9 o'clock across the same desolate plain, with nothing to relieve 

 the monotony beyond the occasional passing of a frozen stream, 

 across which it was a work of art getting the ponies. 



At mid-day I halted to adjust the loads and give the animals 

 a rest near the ruins of a deserted village. What had caused its 

 abandonment no one could tell, but Bh^ta, the Mongol Beg who 

 accompanied me, said the country around was lawless, and that in 

 former years bandits and freebooters infested the neighbourhood, 

 robbing passing caravans and terrorising the district to such an 

 extent that the inhabitants lived in a state of constant dread, 

 never knowing when they might be raided and their property and 

 cattle stolen. 



I camped the night in another Chinese hut forming part of a 

 tiny settlement, the only sign of human habitation we had seen 

 that day. The occupants were not of the usual type of surly 

 Chinese one finds in this distant corner, but on the contrary 

 received us cordially and placed a room at my disposal. In 

 the latter was a gigantic tub full of cabbage in the process of being 

 pickled, but being frozen solid it was not actively offensive. 

 The room possessed a stove and as there was a supply of cow- 

 dung, the only fuel in use here, I was passably comfortable. 



The owner of the hut was an old Chinaman who had lived here 

 for many years, and was in consequence fairly well acquainted with 

 the district bordering on his home. He could not understand 

 why I should be marching through the country at this season 

 of the year, a question I found sufficiently difficult to answer 

 myself, he adding that the Chinese practically slept all through the 

 winter, only sallying forth when necessary, preferring the warmth 

 of bed and blankets to the Arctic rigour without, in which they 

 showed a certain amount of wisdom. 



The land I was now passing through consisted of gravel soil, 

 covered with a scanty crop of short grass, and not affording any 



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