SUPPLIES. LETTERS HOME. 103 



had great difficulty, even with the assistance of our 

 friends, in procuring supphes. And of these we re- 

 quired enough to last us the whole winter, for it was 

 generally reported that no provisions could be ob- 

 tained at К око- nor. ^ Our supplies, however, were 

 at all times limited by our slender resources, and 

 the only provisions procurable were dzamba (barley- 

 meal) and coarse wheaten flour. We bought about 

 seven cwt. of each, and we had also about i .^ cwt. of 

 rice and millet left over from our Ala-shan stores, 

 making four camels' loads in all. 



A few days before our departure for К око- nor, 

 the caravan of Tangutans with which we had travelled 

 to Chobsen returned to Peking, and we availed 

 ourselves of this opportunity to send letters and 

 official reports. In them I announced my intention 

 of starting for Koko-nor, which I hoped to reach ; 

 but I added that we could not proceed thence to 

 Lhassa in Tibet owing to the want of funds. 



At last the wished-for day drew near, and in the 

 afternoon of October 5 we left Chobsen. As I have 

 stated, our road lay over the mountains between the 

 Dungan towns of Seng-kwan and Tatung, by foot- 

 paths almost impracticable for our enfeebled and 

 suffering camels. We therefore divided the baggage 

 among all the pack animals, taking in addition one of 

 the mules which we had used for the summer excur- 

 sion. 



The first short march was satisfactorily accom- 



' This proved to be a false report, as we had no difficulty in buy- 

 ing barley-meal at the encampment of the Wang (prince) of Koko-nor. 



