THE KARLIK TAGH 519 



or spur, and gaze till the eyes ache, over infinite space. 

 One can search the southern deserts, where yellow flats 

 indefinitely extend to a far horizon, broken here and 

 there by pyramidal hills of carmine and yellow ochre. 

 Eastward one's gaze is mystified by the regions of colour, 

 shown by the succeeding ranges of desert hills as they 

 pass from yellow to dun, and from dun to purple, till 

 they tone to the softest ultramarine, and fade into space 

 at a hundred-mile range. Even yet one has surveyed 

 but half the panorama. Northwards the horizon is 

 broken by distant snow-ranges — the Aji Bogdo, a 

 southern offshoot of the Mongolian Altai. These stand 

 up superbly, their height being intensified by the desert 

 gap which lies between — " the small desert of three days' 

 journey in extent," of which Marco Polo wrote. 



Within our vision we held the frontiers of four 

 different Asiatic peoples, different worlds altogether to 

 this settled region of Chanto farm and Kumulik hamlet. 

 Far to the north we could just discern the territories of 

 the Kirei Kirghiz and the Mongol hordes ; eastward, 

 across the intervening zone of uninhabited desert, were 

 the haunts of Torgut nomads, while from the south 

 ceaselessly advanced the plodding bands of Chinese 

 colonists. 



On our return to Shopoli we found it impossible to 

 continue our journey to the Ati Bogdo Mountains. Al- 

 though this range lay only 180 miles to the east, yet 

 lack of guides and independent transport made the under- 

 taking of greater difiiculty than we expected. It seemed 

 possible that, with an independent caravan and water- 

 supply, an attempt might be made to travel eastwards 

 without guides, taking as landmarks the Emir Tagh and 

 Mount Jingis, until sighting the summits of the Ati 



