284 URGA. END OF THE EXPEDITION. 



we met again our own countrymen, and experienced 

 once more European comforts. We enquired eagerly 

 what was going on in the civilised world ; we de- 

 voured the contents of the letters awaiting us ; we 

 gave vent to our joy like children ; it was only after 

 a few days that we came to ourselves and began to 

 realise the luxury to which our wanderings had 

 rendered us for so loner a time strangers. The con- 

 trast between the past and the present was so great 

 that what we had gone through appeared like a 

 horrible dream. After resting a week at Urga, we 

 proceeded to Kiakhta, which we reached on the ist 

 October 1873. 



Our journey was ended. Its success had sur- 

 passed all the hopes we entertained when we crossed 

 for the first time the borders of Mongolia. Then an 

 uncertain future lay before us ; now, as \ve called to 

 mind all the difficulties and dano-ers we had gfone 



о о 



through, we could not help wondering at the good 

 fortune which had invariably attended us every- 

 where. Yes ! in the most adverse circumstances, 

 Fortune had been ever constant, and ensured the 

 success of our undertaking : many a time when it 

 hung on a thread a happy destiny rescued us, and 

 gave us the means of accomplishing, as far as our 

 strength would permit, the exploration of the least 

 known and most inaccessible countries of Inner 

 Asia. 



