Doubtful Guides. 



pasturage worthy of mention. The aspect of the country is a 

 desolate and inhospitable one, as indeed is that of all the steppes 

 of Central Asia and Mongolia. 



On December 14th I resumed the trek, continuing over a 

 country which gradually assumed a more undulating character, 

 and towards noon led us into low hills, bare and now shorn of 

 whatever grass they might possess in the summer months. The 

 Kazak guides accompanying me were not sure of the proper, 

 route so I decided to march due east, a route leading us through 

 a succession of rounded hills to a Kazak encampment. The 



" I HALTED NEAR THE RUINS OF A DESERTED VILLAGE." 



occupants came out to stare at us, as usual, and to wonder 

 what could induce my being on the move in such weather. 

 They were a wild ill-mannered crowd of nomads, some fifty 

 in number, and their felt auls were enclosed in walls of reed 

 and brushwood brought from great distances to serve as a shelter 

 against the winds which rage in this part of the world as they 

 probably do in no other. 



All the nomads remain stationary during the winter months 

 and their dwellings are constructed on the same principle as the one 



351 



