A HARD PULL 201 



beginning to grumble, and it was all our demitcha 

 could do to keep them in order. We were anxious 

 to reach the snowy range at the head of the valley 

 as quickly as possible, but this half-hearted advance 

 was by no means encouraging, and, though we had 

 arranged with the Zaissan at Kosh-Agatch to supply 

 us with a fresh lot of ponies every month, we hardly 

 expected that they would find us in the wilds we were 

 now exploring. According to my forty-verst map, it 

 would take us at least two days to reach the Tchagan- 

 Kol, or Ak-Kol, River (both "Tchagan" and " Ak " 

 meaning white in Mongol), but, to our great astonish- 

 ment, we found ourselves on its banks that very 

 evening after crossing a long steep pass, and having 

 covered a distance of about tw r enty miles from the 

 Suok River. Evidently the map, our main guide, 

 was as unreliable as our friend Daniel, who now 

 confessed that his knowledge of the country was 

 confined to the caravan route to Kobdo town. 

 There was practically no path, and the ascent up 

 to the pass in the afternoon was a hard pull for 

 our pack-horses, several of which straggled behind, 

 and had to be repeatedly reloaded. On reaching 

 the top a broad swamp, produced by the junction 

 of the Tchagan- Kol and Kobdo rivers, came into 

 view. The former flowed through a wide and arid 



