FORT PAMIR 
195 
stands around in anxious expectation. The adjutant 
draws forth the letters, newspapers, post-parcels from 
those they love, now alas! so far off. He distributes them 
to the happy recipients. Joy reigns supreme, except in 
the bosoms of the unhappy beings for whom this Asiatic 
Father Christmas has brought no heart-warming gift. 
For three post-days in succession I was counted amongst 
the unenvied ones. This was because of the alteration 
in my route. All my letters were sent on to Kashgar, 
with the result that for a period of four whole months 
I never received a single letter from home. The contents 
of the mail-bags distributed, the rest of the day is spent 
in greedily devouring the welcome home news. Evening 
comes. Officers and men meet for dinner, each in their 
own quarters. But all alike pursue one common topic 
of conversation — the events which have been happening 
recently in the great world of politics and human action 
from one end of the world to the other. 
Our day was generally spent in the following manner. 
Every man had tea (first breakfast) in his own room. At 
noon precisely a signal by roll of drum called us all 
together for a substantial breakfast. After that we had 
tea again in our own private quarters. At six o’clock 
a fresh drum-signal reminded us that dinner was ready. 
After dinner we broke up into little groups, to each 
of which coffee was served round. We then talked 
until late into the night ; and towards midnight I and 
the commandant used to have a snack of supper. 
Drill filled up most of the morning hours. The soldiers 
and Cossacks were also during the course of the day 
instructed in certain of the sciences which have a bearing 
upon military matters. But my time was for the most 
part occupied in more peaceable pursuits, for one thing 
photography. In the evening, when I developed my 
plates, I was usually surrounded by half-a-dozen closely 
interested spectators, who never tired of watching how, 
as by a wizard’s “ pass,” the frigid mountain scenery and 
its half-wild inhabitants imparted life and meaning to the 
photographic plates. 
