182 EXPEDITION TO KALMUK. 



Leaving the suburb, I saw a long stretch of 

 water, and learnt there was a lake fed by the 

 stream we had crossed, extending about eight 

 miles east and west, and was as salt as the sea. 

 It was a long weary tramp to Yakka, where I 

 found a crowd assembled on a sort of village 

 green, forming a circle round the lads and lasses, 

 who were disporting themselves in some kind of 

 country dance. I joined the throng as a spec- 

 tator, but soon found myself surrounded instead, 

 and the dancing ceased. Being anxious to see 

 the performance, I asked them to continue, which 

 after a while they did. It seemed to be a dance 

 very similar to that of the Bhots or Sadakis, a 

 slow measure, with the same sort of hand gesture, 

 to the accompaniment of a small drum and rude 

 sort of wooden instrument. 



The country through which I was travelling was 

 uninteresting, and the marches, daily from twenty 

 to thirty miles, very wearisome, being mostly over 

 a stony sort of moraine that comes down from the 

 mountains, and so cold that I walked the greater 

 part of the way. Passing Awat and Bugar, the 

 latter a place of some importance, having a Chinese 

 fort and Amban, I caught up a party of native 

 travellers, among whom was a pilgrim or Hadji, 



