CHAPTER XXVII 



ACROSS THE DESERT, AND SOME NOTES ON THE 

 MONGOLIAN GAZELLE (Gazella guttUTOSCl) 



WE stayed at Suchow, which, by the way, endured 

 a three years' siege during the Great Rebellion, 

 two and a half days, for the animals wanted resting 

 and, the gauge of the road changing, we had to 

 have new axles fitted to the carts. We were not 

 sorry to have a rest, for the going had at times 

 been very rough, and we were well shaken. One 

 stage to the westward used to stand the Kai-yii- 

 kwan Gate, which shut barbarians from the sacred 

 soil of the Middle Kingdom. Now the chief 

 feature of the landscape to strike the traveller is 

 the number of large flat stones which stretch for 

 acres on every side. 



For the week following we experienced very cold 

 weather, the climax coming on Christmas Day, 

 when we had to cross a long open stretch of 

 country, with no shelter, in a fierce wind. It is the 

 wind which every traveller in Central Asia dreads. 

 On a still day in warm sunshine the cold is not 

 noticeable, but once let even a slight breeze spring 

 up, sweeping unchecked over endless miles of 

 frozen plain, it numbs him to the bone. AVe came, 

 from the outcroppings of unambitious mud knolls 



250 



