148 
THROUGH ASIA 
while the black-bulb insolation thermometer showed i25°6 
Fahr. (52° C.). 
It began to darken whilst we were still two hours from 
the next camp. The horses travelled so slowly, and my 
back ached so from the heavy furs I wore, that, bidding 
Min Bashi accompany me, I left the caravan, and set off 
in the darkness to make my way as best I could over the 
pathless country. Min Bashi went on first. I followed 
in the track, or rather furrow, which his horse ploughed 
through the snow. It was a wearying ride, and, but that 
the stars shone brightly, w’ould have been as dark as 
pitch. At last, however, we came to the solitary little hut 
of Bor-doba. Had there been a worthy Boniface in 
charge, he would have been vastly amazed to hear two 
snow-smothered horsemen ride up to the door at that late 
hour of the night, fasten their horses outside, stamp the 
snow off their clothes and boots, and without further 
ceremony march into the house. To prevent any mis- 
conception as to the style of “ house ” it was, I will state at 
once, that this rabat (rest-house) was merely an earthen 
hut, with a wooden roof supported by rough beams, and 
that the only provision for sleeping was a square bank of 
earth in the middle of the floor. This and a few similar 
huts have been put up by the direction of the governor 
of Fergana, for the convenience of the mounted post- 
messengers who travel backwards and forwards between 
Margelan and Fort Pamir. This particular hut stood at 
the foot of a desolate hill, and from that circumstance gets 
its name of Bor-doba, a corruption of Bor-teppe, the Grey 
Hill. We both dropped straight off to sleep, and slept 
until the bustle and noise caused by the arrival of the 
caravan awakened us. Then we had tea made and 
warmed ourselves over a glorious fire. 
On the way to Bor-doba we saw the tracks of eight 
wolves, which had crossed over the valley in a scattered 
troop from the Alai Mountains to the Trans -Alai. 
Further on they all struck into our track, which led 
through a narrow opening between two hills. The 
Kirghiz told me, it was an old and well-known wolf-traiL 
