PEAK-BAGGING IN THE ALTAI 177 



AkkeM valley, which at this place is quite flat, with 

 the River Akkeiri flowing down it. It was snowing 

 hard when we reached this spot. We were undecided 

 whether to pitch our tent, when I noticed a Kalmuck 

 bark hut, which made the valley seem quite civilised. 

 Night was setting in, so we called a halt and pre- 

 pared our camp by scraping away the snow and 

 erecting a tent. 



The Kalmuck who occupied the bark hut was quite 

 pleased and excited at seeing us and, while he scraped 

 away the snow, his children brought some dry sticks 

 from the hut ; he then lit us a fire, while we unpacked 

 the luggage, putting the guns and everything we 

 wished to keep dry in his hut. We gave him our 

 kettle, and he soon had it filled with water from 

 the river. Pushing a stout branch of a tree into 

 the ground, so that one end leaned over the fire, he 

 placed the kettle on it. Before we had unpacked 

 the tea and provisions the water was boiling. 



My interpreter prepared dinner, one of the hunters 

 and myself pitched the tent, and the other hunter 

 looked after the horses. We sat round the fire in 

 the thick snowstorm. The thermometer registered 

 20 degrees below freezing point and the snow was 

 falling fast, but we did not permit either the sno'w 

 or the cold to interfere with our dinner, which con- 

 sisted of tinned ox -tail soup. Army and Navy rations, 

 rusks, black bread, jam, and tea. There seemed 

 little likelihood of the snow abating, so we did not 

 sit very long by the fire. My companion proposed 

 to retire to the tent. He was five feet 10 inches' 

 in height, while the tent was only 6 feet 6 inches 

 long, stood 3 feet from the ground, and weighed 

 12 lbs. I had not contemplated using it except on 

 the ledges of precipices while climbing the moun- 

 tains. However, we succeeded in collecting sufficient 

 clothes to spread on the ground inside the tent, and 



12 



