DEPARTURE FROM KIAKHTA. 5 



of the wheels may chance to roll produces a violent 

 jolting of the whole vehicle and consequently of its 

 unfortunate occupant. It may easily be imagined 

 how his sufferings may be aggravated when travel- 

 ling with post horses at a trot. 



In a conveyance of this kind, hired from a 

 Kiakhta merchant, we determined to proceed with 

 camels through Mongolia to Kalgan. Our con- 

 tractor лvas a Mongol луЬо had brought a quantity 

 of tea to Kiakhta and was returninor for a fresh 



О 



load. After some negotiations, we finally agreed 

 with him for the transport of ourselves, one Cossack, 

 and all our baggage, to Kalgan for 70 lans (140 

 rubles, 2qI)} 



The journey was not to take more than forty 

 days, a comparatively long time, as the Mongols 

 usually convey travellers from Kiakhta to Peking in 

 twenty-five days, but the price charged for this acce- 

 lerated speed is proportionately higher. I wished 

 to acquaint myself as far as I could with the nature 

 of the country through which I was about to travel, 

 and, therefore, a slow rate of progress was rather 

 an advantage to me than otherwise. A Cossack of 

 the Buriat tribe belonging to the Trans- Baikal force 

 Avas ordered to accompany us as interpreter of the 

 Mongol language. He proved to be an excellent 

 dragoman ; but being the son of a rich man, and 

 disliking the hardships of travel, he soon became so 



^ Lan appears to be the Russian way of representing the word 

 Avhich French and English sinologues write usually as Hang, viz. the 

 tael, or Chinese ' ounce of silver.' — Y. 



