RETURN TO KAN-SU. 231 



districts, we preferred again facing the difficulties of 

 the mountains. 



During our month's stay on the Pouhain-gol we 

 finally equipped our caravan for the march. We 

 exchanged our felt tent for camel-saddles, of which 

 we stood greatly in need. On returning to Tsaidam 

 half the camels were unfit for work, and although 

 we succeeded in obtaining others in their stead the 

 money we had to pay in addition completely ex- 

 hausted our finances, leaving us only five lans with 

 which to supply the place of those that had perished 

 in Tibet. We were at length driven to the last 



о 



extremity of selling revolvers to the Tangutans and 

 Mongol officials, and bartered away three out of our 

 remaining twelve for three good camels, besides 

 selling two for sixty-five lans (18/.), which enabled us 

 to remain three spring months in Koko-nor and 

 Kan-su. 



The first step we took in Kan-su everything 

 suddenly changed. Instead of a dry atmosphere, we 

 had a fall of snow every day, whilst the ground was 

 saturated with moisture like a sponge. Vegetation 

 had not begun to develope itself under the influence 

 of spring ; the watercourses were still covered with 

 ice, and the night frosts were still sharp. There луеге 

 fewer migratory birds even than at Koko-nor, and 

 summer visitants had not arrived in large numbers ; 

 a few solitary specimens only having made their 

 appearance. In fact the Kan-su mountains looked 

 just as we had left them in the end of October of 

 the previous autumn. 



