AMMUNITION, AND MERCHANDISE. 25 



ourselves with 4,000 prepared cartridges for these 

 guns ; besides which we had 1 3 revolvers, 2 Rem- 

 ington pistols, a double-barrelled Lancaster rifle, and 

 four shot-guns, for which we carried 2^ cwt. of shot 

 and 4 cwt. of gunpowder. 



These constituted our fighting and sporting 

 equipment. In every other respect we were obliged 

 to stint ourselves as far as possible, owing to our 

 limited means. To cover some of the expenses of 

 outfit and provide for the continuation of our journey, 

 I travelled to Tien-tsin,^ where I bought sundry 

 small merchandise to the amount of 80/., which I 

 hoped to sell at a good profit at Ala-shan. After 

 all these purchases had been completed, we had only 

 87 lans (about 22/.) left in our pockets at the time 

 of our departure from Kalgan. 



The personnel of our expedition was now re- 

 organised. The two Cossacks who had accompanied 

 us during the first year proved to be untrustworthy, 

 and suffered so dreadfully from home-sickness that 

 I determined to dismiss them and procure others 

 instead. My two new travelling companions were 

 selected from the detachment stationed at Urga, and, 

 fortunately for us, proved most devoted, efficient, 

 and zealous coadj'utors during the whole of our long 

 journey. One was a Russian youth, aged 19, 

 named Pamphile Chebayeff, the other a Buriat, 

 Dondok Irinchinoff We soon struck up a close 

 friendship with these good men, which eminently 



* Tien-tsin is a little over 66 miles in an easterly direction from 

 Peking ; and is situated near the mouth of the Peiho, by which ri\cr 

 seagoing steamers of a moderate size ascend as far as that town. 



