PETTY THEFTS. FORCED MARCH. 21 



drop in. On one of these occasions our guests stole 

 our last axe and hammer, trifling but indispensable 

 articles for our journey. No others could be ob- 

 tained, and it was useless attempting to recover the 

 stolen ones. We therefore substituted a hand-saw 

 for the axe, and in the place of a hammer we made 

 use of a big stone, which we carried with us and 

 used every day to drive the iron tent pegs into the 

 frozen ground. 



As soon as we had obtained new camels, we 

 hurried to Kalgan by forced marches, only stopping 

 for two days in the Suma-hada mountains to hunt the 

 argali ; this time I succeeded in bagging two old 

 rams. Another accident happened to us on the road. 

 My friend's horse took fright, shied, and ran away. 

 Michail Alexandrovitch was too weak to keep his 

 seat on horseback, and fell head foremost on the 

 frozen ground, so heavily that we picked him up 

 insensible. However, he soon came to himself, 

 only suffering a slight contusion. 



The influence of the warmth of China on this 

 border land of Mongolia was very remarkable ; on 

 calm days or with gentle south-westerly winds it was 

 quite warm during the day. On the loth Decem- 

 ber the thermometer marked 2*5° Cent. (35° Fahr.) 

 in the shade. But no sooner did a westerly or 

 north-westerly Avind spring up than it became cold. 

 The night frosts were generally moderate ; the 

 thermometer at sunrise did not descend below — 297° 

 Cent. ( — 20° Fahr.), but after a cloudy night it only 

 registered —6-5° Cent. {20° Fahr.). The weather 



