FROM KULJA TO KUMUL 433 



place, Sutai, we considered to be a still more melancholy 

 spot for a halt ; not a blade of grass or scrub, nor even 

 water, was to be found, while the foul mud-huts, and the 

 evil-looking rascals inhabiting them, did not make the 

 place more inviting. We found gazelle near by, but, 

 failing in our attempts to hunt them by driving, we once 

 again resorted to our old occupation of smoking our- 

 selves warm. 



Later we decided, since there was a good moon, to 

 make a night-drive, and accordingly, after a good meal, 

 hitched up and started off. The road was simply a stony 

 waste, over which we bumped and rattled to the " Hoa- 

 hoa-hoa ! " of the drivers, till the dawn flushed the sky 

 and we turned out, lit a fire of scrub near the road, and 

 warmed ourselves. 



Thus we journeyed, da}^ by day, across Southern 

 Dzungaria. It would be tedious, and vastly uninteresting, 

 to describe every stage of the forty that lay between 

 Kulja and Kumul; it is hard, however, to give a true 

 impression of the region without undue monotony of 

 description. 



We usually drove for about seven or eight hours, 

 and averaged twenty to thirty miles a day; sometimes 

 we drove all night, but we gave this up after losing two 

 horses from frost-bite. If, when travelling at night, 

 we pulled up even for a few minutes, to let the sweating 

 horses gain their breath, they ran the risk of freezing 

 as they stood. 



At this season of the year the track was comparatively 

 good, for the hard frozen snow had filled up the in- 

 equalities of the ground and made the going easy ; there 

 was no dust, and the air was glorious. 



The location of the stopping-places controlled our 



