FROM KULJA TO KUMUL 447 



by camel to a town where only a small demand could 

 be made for them. 



At Urumchi we paid calls on Governors, Generals, 

 and Provincial Judges, and we enjoyed for a season 

 grotesque Chinese dinners and polite society, but our 

 desire was to move on, so we did not rest long. Some 

 days were occupied in arranging money matters, for, 

 although the Russian rouble has penetrated thus far 

 into Middle Asia, beyond Urumchi we found it necessary 

 to use Chinese coinage. We needed, however, money 

 which was current over the whole province, a local 

 coinage being useless to us ; so we carried paper- 

 money in i-tael notes, silver pieces of the same value, 

 and very bulky copper coins which filled a sack and 

 weighed seventy pounds, the exchange working out 

 at a loss of 30 per cent. 



On February 12th we set off on the second stage of 

 eighteen days, following the northern road to Guchen. 

 We decided to go direct by the Guchen route to Kumul 

 instead of by the southern road, which passes through 

 Turf an, in order to confine our attentions, as far as possible, 

 to Dzungaria. In spite of the cold and the deep snow 

 the north road seemed to us the more worthy of traversing, 

 it being less known than the southern, or Turf an route. 

 From the point of view of time the two routes are about 

 the same during the winter months, the hindrances 

 caused by a heavy snowfall on the north being more 

 than counterbalanced by those resulting from the sand 

 on the southern road ; but in summer the Guchen route 

 is greatly to be recommended, the traveller thus avoiding 

 the excessively hot basin of Turf an. The difference in 

 the height of the passes over to the Nan-lu is of little 

 consequence, for, although the Guchen route leads over a 

 II— 9 



