198 SIBERIA 



boulders . They soon wore a look of disgust on their 

 faces . 



I had anticipated, that if I did not carry luggage 

 myself, they would complain of their loads being 

 too heavy, so I had taken as much as both of them 

 together, and, when they began to complain, re- 

 minded them of that fact. I quickened my pace 

 and left them some distance behind. When we left 

 camp the weather was very cold, the wind blowing 

 from the north. The sky was clear and blue. 



An hour later, as we were making our way up the 

 moraine on the left, snow began to fall and my 

 companions became anxious to return ; but I argued 

 and cajoled, and finally prevailed on them to go on. 

 We proceeded for another hour, when they finally 

 struck, although it was next to impossible to camp 

 on that moraine, and they had agreed only two 

 hours previously to carry out my wish to sleep that 

 night at the base of Belukha. We had, therefore, 

 only covered two miles of the six which lay between 

 us and the peak. My arguments were of no use, 

 however, for, suiting their actions to their word, they 

 both put down the luggage and were about to leave 

 me, when I agreed that if they would help me to 

 find a suitable place for the camp, they could come 

 up at 4 a.m. in the morning and carry it to the base 

 of Belukha, which they solemnly promised — a 

 " Russian promise " — to do. 



They took up the luggage again and we wandered 

 on a little, but there was no place for a camp. I 

 wanted to take them a little farther, when they in- 

 sisted on my choosing a spot close to where they sat. 

 The rest of the moraine was quite as desolate, so I 

 turned over as many boulders as possible to get the 

 dryer side. After scraping away the snow and 

 levelling up the boulders, I found that there was 

 no possibility of driving pegs in between them, so 



