RAGS AND TATTERS. 215 



we made preparations for the march, by taking the 

 yurta to pieces and packing it with the other bag- 

 gage on the camels. All this occupied a good hour 

 and a half, so that by the time we were ready to start 

 we already felt tired. Sometimes it was so cold, and 

 the wind was so keen, that we could not sit on horse- 

 back, yet the exertion of walking, encumbered 

 as we were with some eighteen pounds' weight in 

 the shape of gun and ammunition, was often too 

 much for our strength at that terrible elevation, 

 where every additional pound told, and we constantly 

 suffered from those distressing symptoms caused by 

 the extreme rarefaction of the atmosphere. 



Our warm clothing, too, was so worn out by two 

 years' use as to be a most ineffectual protection 

 against the cold ; our fur coats and trowsers being 

 in tatters. As for boots we had none, and were 

 reduced to sewing bits of yak-hide to old leggings, 

 as a coverinor for our feet in the coldest weather. 



О 



Frequently, towards midday, the Avind would 

 increase to the violence of a hurricane, filling the air 

 with sand and dust, and making further progress 

 impossible while it lasted ; and we would be com- 

 pelled to halt, although we had gone only six or 

 seven miles. But even in the finest weather a march 

 of twelve miles on those lofty plains is more exhaust- 

 ing to the strength than double that distance at a 

 lower elevation. 



On arriving at the halting place our first duty 

 was to unload the camels and set up the yurta, 

 which took us another hour ; the next was to collect 



