FROM THE ALTAI TO THE ILI 405 



in a quaint mixture of Russian and Chinese styles, he 

 preferred to use his yurt. The Wang entertained us 

 in the house, which was furnished chiefly with large 

 mirrors and numerous clocks, besides a gramophone 

 and a photograph of himself ! 



The Kobuk being half-way between Sharasume and 

 Chuguchak, we changed our camels for fresh ones 

 supplied by the Wang, and made tracks westwards. 

 Camel transport is slow work under the best conditions, 

 and is exceptionally tedious when all ambition is centred 

 on advancing as quickly as possible and reaching one's 

 destination. The actual distances covered by either 

 camels or horses in a day's march does not really differ 

 to any great extent. Camels move more steadily and 

 slowly, keeping up continuously from dawn to dusk ; 

 horses, on the other hand, trek faster but for a shorter 

 time. We used to break camp every morning at 7, start 

 the caravan by 9 one, and travel till about 4.30 p.m., 

 thus averaging fifteen to eighteen miles a day. We 

 covered the distance between the Altai and the town 

 of Chuguchak in two stages of nine and eight days each, 

 changing camels half-way. The cost of the eleven 

 camels and the six riding-horses came to about £22 for 

 the whole journey. We ourselves rode on horseback. 

 Our caravan had quite an imposing appearance, con- 

 sisting, as it did, of a string of eleven baggage-camels, 

 half a dozen natives — and our own party of four — all on 

 horseback ; added to which were nineteen of our 

 caravan-horses from far-distant Siberia. These were 

 driven along unladen, as we intended to sell them on 

 reaching a likely market. 



Travelling by the longest stages allowed by the 

 rapidly shortening days, we left the Kobuk steppe and 



