252 ACROSS THE DESERT 



found ourselves entering the broken-down gate- 

 way which pierced it. I have never seen places so 

 elusive of approach. 



Dodging furtively among the grasses, ere we 

 rejoined the carts after our walk, we one day saw 

 two large wolves. Splendid-looking brutes despite 

 their somewhat hang-dog appearance, they were 

 invisible by the time we had secured our rifles. 



We reached Ansi-chow on December 29th, and 

 remained for one day, repacking our carts and 

 resting the animals. Ansi = Western Peace, being 

 the characters transposed of Sian, which means 

 Peaceful West. There is a wide river, the 

 Bulun-zir, five li from the city, which we had some 

 difficulty in crossing. It was frozen hard, but the 

 ice was thin at the edge and the carts broke 

 through. However, by partially unloading them 

 we got safely over, harnessing seven mules to each 

 cart in turn. George had taken on an extra boy 

 as far as Ti-hua. He was very willing and a good 

 worker. Crossing the river he got his feet wet 

 and next day one of his toes was frost-bitten, but 

 he soon got all right. The " rose red of the long- 

 departed sun " threw into strong relief a string of 

 camels conjing down for their evening drink, and 

 reminded me of Egypt. It was very cold, but the 

 moon was bright and we spent New Year's Eve 

 tramping about on the borders of the Gobi Desert, 

 our only immediate excitement before turning into 

 our carts being the prospect of a couple of buns 

 and a few raisins. Having crossed the river at 

 6.30 p.m., in which we were more fortunate than 

 some other travellers who, in spite of unloading, 

 had their carts firmly frozen into the ice, we 



