180 EXPEDITION TO KALMUK. 



it been a very little darker I should most likely 

 have done so. 



The shepherds having come into the forest, we 

 struck camp, and finding the district for nearly 

 twenty miles was overrun, went on to the village 

 of Sierak, and from there to Shah Yar. Here I 

 was met by a sort of orderly officer of the 

 Beg's, and conducted to a capital house just 

 outside the bazaar, where I soon had a mass of 

 visitors, and amongst others a man who had just 

 come in from the direction of Kuchar, and gave 

 me the welcome news that he had passed Bower 

 on his way. This was capital ; so I settled my- 

 self comfortably, and set to work skinning the 

 camel's head : it was frozen so hard that I had to 

 thaw it before the fire. The body skin I had been 

 trying to dry in the sun ; but even at mid-day it 

 had very little power over the cold air, and I had 

 not as yet succeeded. 



About five o'clock Bower arrived. He had 

 sent men out in all directions after Dad 

 Mahomed whom he expected to be back in 

 about a month, when he should have to return 

 to receive them. I had hoped we might have 

 gone on together and explored the eastern Tian 

 Shan ; but it would have taken too long-, so we 



