178 SIBERIA 



presently retired. When I crawled in it seemed to 

 me that the inside was rather damp, and I had not 

 been asleep very long when I was awakened by a 

 small stream of water running down my neck. It 

 came from the small hole in the tent, through which 

 the cord is inserted which is used to tighten it up, so 

 I had to change my position. This was not as easy 

 as it sounds. There were only a few inches of room 

 left, and any sudden movement might have brought 

 the tent down. .We slept fairly well and comfort- 

 ably ^.fterwards. The water down my back soon 

 dried, but it seemed to soak into our articles of 

 bedding, making the soil underneath nice and soft, 

 and allowing the body to settle down into a mould, 

 thus preventing my interpreter from rolling on me, 

 or me on him. In the morning, as we had expected, 

 we found the ground on which we had been lying 

 afloat, and the ancient sheep-skin coats, which had 

 served us as rugs, saturated with water. 



The Akkem valley in which we camped is 

 4,325 feet above sea-level, and the spot at which 

 we had stopped was the last Kalmuck settlement 

 along the Akkem river. Our little tent was pitched 

 quite close to one of the Kalmuck huts, which was 

 of the usual pattern, being made of long poles or 

 selected saplings, stripped of their branches, ingeni- 

 ously disposed and covered with strips of bark from 

 neighbouring trees. Eajch hut has a heavy wooden 

 door 2 feet from the bottom, measurmg about 4 feet 

 by 5 feet and opening outwards. The Kalmucks 

 were very amicably disposed towards us. One of 

 them, who helped us to pack our tent, was exceedingly 

 doubtful as to the success of our undertaking and 

 pressed us very much to stay awhile with them on 

 our return journey. He informed my huntsman, who 

 spoke the language of the tribe, that no one else had 

 ever thought of making the journey in winter, on 



