RESULT OF OUR. INSUFFICIENCY OF FUNDS. 95 



French brandy, 36 lbs. of sugar, and two sacks of 

 rice ; we hoped to obtain as much meat as we re- 

 quired with our g-uns. 



This meagre supply for our personal consumption 

 was occasioned by the slenderness of our finances. 

 The first year of our travels we received from the 

 War Department, the Geographical Society, and 

 the Botanical Gardens of St. Petersburg the aggre- 

 gate sum of 350/., including my salary ; in the 

 second and third the amount was increased to 

 500/. ; my travelling companion, M. Pyltseff, re- 

 ceived the first year 40/. and the two following 80/. 

 I state the case plainly as to our monetary resources 

 simply because the want of means was the greatest 

 possible hindrance to us. In proof of this, I may 

 remark that as each Cossack was entitled to 28/. a 

 year salary, which I paid regularly in silver, I could 

 not afford more than two men. My companion and 

 I were, therefore, obliged to load the camels our- 

 selves, to pasture them, to collect argols for fuel, &c., 

 in fact, do all the drudgery ; whereas, under other 

 circumstances, the time thus spent might have been 

 devoted to scientific observations. Again, I could 

 not afford a good interpreter of the Mongol language, 

 thoroughly conversant with his duties, who would 

 have been of the greatest service on several occa- 

 sions. My Cossack-dragoman was by turns labourer, 

 herdsman, cook, constantly employed in one or other 

 of these capacities, and only able now and then to 

 spare a short time for his legitimate business. Lastly, 

 our poverty was the cause of our actually suffer- 



