Across the R(x)f of the World. 



a revelation to me, and, despite the pain and suffering, I passed 

 a fairly comfortable night amid surroundings to which I had for 

 many months been totally unaccustomed. 



The walls of my room were decorated with prints of fiery 

 colour, prominent amongst them being portraits of the Emperor 

 and Empress. 



At 8 o'clock the following morning horses and sledges were 

 brought round and I entered on the drive of 26 versts into 

 Zaisan. It was still the same barren and snow-covered steppe 

 country over which we mostly galloped, and then finally breasting 

 a low ridge, v/e discerned the little town of Zaisan several miles 

 distant, and lying at the foot of a range of hills. The only 

 exciting incident on the way occurred when the rearmost sledge, 

 taking a corner too rapidly, overturned and shot the baggage 

 and occupants out unceremoniously, but the snow was too deep 

 and soft for any harm to be done. 



On arrival in Zaisan I drove to tlic post-house, and there 

 installed, sent off letters to the Russian authorities and to an 

 officer in tlie 3rd Siberian Cossacks to whom I had been given 

 a note of introduction in Kulja in case I should pass that way. 

 In course of time they appeared and after a stay of a few days 

 in the post-house, where I received medical attention at the 

 hands of the surgeon in charge of the hospital, I was removed to 

 the latter building there to undergo operations for the grafting 

 of new skin and be more directly under the care of the doctor 

 than I could have been in the little post-house. 



Giyani, too, received every attention at their hands, and to 

 the care and skill displayed by the Russian doctor and the great 

 kindness shown him, as well as me, in our unfortunate contre- 

 temps, he owes the complete restoration of his hands to their 

 normal condition. 



Before resuming the narrative of the last stage of the journey 

 to the Trans-Siberian Railway, it maybe interesting to give some 

 account of this far away outpost of the Czar's Empire on the 

 borders of Mongolia and Siberia. 



398 



