278 A PHANTOM JOURNEY 



bitterly cold in the night, but we could not get off 

 the road, the snow being four or five feet deep in 

 places. This cotton wool was bound for Semi- 

 palatinsk from Turfan and Kashgar. Each sleigh 

 carried 700 Ibs. in large bales. 



The " elder " was always upsetting our sleigh. He 

 only weighed about six stones, and never attempted 

 to balance us with the little weight he had. After a 

 time we knew the symptoms, and prepared for the 

 worst. There would come a bump, the sleigh 

 would tilt ; we both threw our weight on the up 

 side in a frantic endeavour to restore the balance. 

 Sometimes we were successful. More often the 

 " elder " would slip slowly off backwards into the 

 snow, where we usually followed him. There was 

 always some excuse with which they foisted off our 

 enquiries ; the next stage was bad going, and could 

 not be travelled in the dark; the wind was too 

 great ; or the horses were tired. We were detained 

 one day, as the wind really was bad, and the next 

 stage was unusually bad country. Three days 

 previously the mail had been " held up," and two 

 horses frozen to death. There was only one 

 passenger. The men cut their horses free from the 

 sleigh, and rode into the post-house where we were 

 stopping. When they went back for the passenger 

 he was so ill from exposure that he had to remain for 

 three days without moving. The country through 

 which we passed had suffered severely from a 

 famine. Many horses were dead, and lay, gnawed 

 by dogs, at the roadside. One man told us he had 

 lost 1,200 beasts ; and between Sergiopol and Semi- 

 palatinsk thousands of cattle, sheep, and horses 

 perished. Many villages were reduced to two or 



