78 BEASTS AND MEN 
place some fifty miles from Altai. Up to this point the 
journey had been performed with comparative ease. Scanty 
provisions could be obtained at the widely separated stations 
which they passed on their way; but from Biisk the real 
difficulties of the expedition commenced. Native drivers and 
riders were hired for transporting into the interior the tents, 
provisions, money, and other baggage belonging to the 
Mongolian village. 
travellers. Riding on horses or camels, through deep snow 
and in intense cold, 600 miles had to be traversed to reach 
Kobdo by way of Kaschagatsch. On one occasion when 
the thermometer fell to 50° below zero (F.) the fifty cases 
of sterilised milk which had been taken as food for the 
captured animals froze hard. 
Although Kobdo had been selected as the headquarters 
of the various expeditions, there was little in that distant 
town that could be of any use to the travellers. The town 
