228 AMONG THE IBEX OF TURKESTAN. 



sufficient means for subsistence for many days to 

 come, and rather than climb down from the position 

 he had taken up he would, I am convinced, have 

 waited with absolute complacency until either des- 

 titution or the crack of doom constrained him to 

 move. I, unfortunately, had not the unlimited time 

 at my disposal which he appeared to have, and at 

 the end of a week I bowed to the inevitable, gave 

 him his twenty-five roubles, and proceeded on my 

 way. 



There is, of course, no bridge over the Hi river — 

 Why should there be ? the Chinaman would probably 

 ask — and the same inconvenient ferry-boat which has 

 somewhere been aptly described as a " muddy box," 

 and which has been handed on from prehistoric times 

 of the past, to continue in all probability to a cor- 

 responding period in the future, is the only means of 

 getting across. From here, striking south-east, we 

 crossed the spur of mountains rising between Kulja and 

 Tekkes, and on the evening of the fifth day reached the 

 Hi once more and halted for the night in a yurt put at 

 our disposal by the headman of a Kalmuk aoul (village 

 of yurts). Here a day's halt was necessary while en- 

 gaging Kalmuks as guides and hunters, and buying a 

 small flock of sheep to drive along with us for our food- 

 supply, for the Oriyaas valley is uninhabited ; but on 

 the last day of May I reached the gorge where the 

 river escapes from the mountains, and, crossing a low 

 ridge, found myself at the foot of the mountain valley. 



I wish I could give a description even approaching 

 the reality of the extraordinary beauty of the scenery 

 through which the Oriyaas flows. Photographs may 

 give the outline, but they cannot reproduce the wonder- 

 ful colouring, to which is perhaps to be chiefly attributed 

 the extraordinary charm of the view. The river's source 



