CHAPTER XXVI 



ON THE FRINGE OF THE DESERT, AND SOME 

 ACCOUNT OF PRZEWALSKI'S GAZELLE (Gazellci 



przewalskii] 



THE journey from Lanchow to Ti-hua-fu, Urumtchi 

 or Hung-miao (lit. Red Temple), for by all these 

 names is the one place known, falls naturally into 

 three divisions. The first is from Lanchow to 

 Suchow ; the second from Suchow to Hami ; the 

 third from Hami to Ti-hua-fu. Each of these 

 stages, travelling in heavy carts drawn by a shaft 

 horse or mule, with three abreast in front, occupies, 

 under normal conditions, eighteen days. Allow- 

 ing for delays on the road and inevitable trouble 

 on the Russian frontier, we calculated that we 

 should not reach the railway in whatever direc- 

 tion we eventually travelled, whether north via 

 Tarbagatai and Semipalatinsk to Omsk, or west 

 ..via Kuldja to Tashkent, under 110 days. The 

 correctness of our calculations was apparent, for, 

 including nearly a fortnight wasted at the fron- 

 tier of Russian Turkestan, the journey occupied 

 115 days. 



A small itinerary printed at Sian-fu for the 



238 



