5 8 LEAVENED BREAD. 



rare thing — some excellent leavened bread, baked 

 with yeast.^ This was the first of the kind we had 

 seen, and we never afterwards saw any more of it. 

 Of course луе took a good supply for the road. 

 Whence this mode of bakincr bread was introduced 



О 



I cannot say, although the Solones told us that some 

 years ago they taught the art to the local bakers, 

 having learnt it from the Russians on the Amur. 



The best road from Ala-shan to the temple 

 of Chobsen, and also to Si-ning and Lake Koko-nor, 

 passes through the towns of Sa-yang-chen and 

 Dj"ung-ling ; but we took a more westerly course 

 through Ta-jing, in order to avoid the Chinese 

 towns and population, which is thickly scattered 

 along the more easterly and better road. Our 

 fellow-travellers were so well aware of the difficulties 

 to which they would have to submit at the hands of 

 the Chinese authorities and soldiers, if they marched 

 through the populous region, that they preferred 

 following the mountain paths leading from Ta-jing 

 to Chobsen through districts thinly inhabited and 

 depopulated by the Dungans. 



^ In China only unleavened bread is used, and that always newly 

 baked. The Abbe Hue, however, in the description of his journey 

 through Tartary, mentions some excellent leavened loaves which he 

 found in Kan-su, near the town of Sa-yang-chen, therefore not far 

 from Ta-jing. — Hue, ' Souvenirs d'un Voyage en Tartarie/ &c., t. ii. 



1 



