Across the Rcjof of the World. 



repetition of it I must discard a few felt stockings and other 

 articles of clothing, in order to give free play to the limbs. I 

 followed this sage advice and had no further trouble, regretting 

 I had not done so before leaving Zaisan, in accordance with 

 Khatimski's advice. He wore only two pairs of thick stockings, 

 whilst I had four. 



The road here lay to the south of the great Zaisan Lake, on 

 which small river steamers run in the summer months down the 

 Irtish River to Omsk, a five-day journey and a pleasant one 

 at that season of the year. 



The country around the Zaisan Lake is inhabited by Kirghiz, 

 or Kazaks as they are known in the Chinese Empire, the sledge 

 drivers on this portion of the road being recruited entirely 

 from them. The land is a vast and desolate steppe, sparsely 

 inhabited in winter, though a great grazing ground during the 

 rest of the year, and affording fine pasturage to large herds of 

 horses and cattle. 



In appearance, in their manners and customs, and in their 

 mode of life, the Kirghiz of Russian territory closely resemble 

 the Kazaks one encounters in Chinese Turkistan and Mongolia, 

 with the exception that contact with the Russians has rendered 

 them a trifle more civilised. 



In days gone by the steppe country throughout this region 

 of Siberia was given over to the Kirghiz who roamed it un- 

 checked, but with the advance of time they have become less 

 independent than in former days. 



Concerning the steppe country in the vicinity of Lake 

 Zaisan the Kirghiz have an interesting legend to the effect 

 that in days long before the Christian era the land was peopled 

 by a high and mighty race, two individuals of which, a father and 

 his son, with the object of damming the river, determined to 

 remove one of the peaks of the Tarbagatai Range to the 

 southward and transfer it to the banks of the Irtish River, hard 

 by the town of Ustkhamenogorsk. As the distance was too 

 great to be compassed in one day they decided to halt the night 



408 



