THROUGH ASIA 
372 
gravel beneath, and so cleared a place on which to put 
up the yurt. This was small, and very rough and ready, 
providing sleeping- room for three only. It had no tnndtik 
or smoke-vent, as the poles met at the apex, and were 
simply thrust through a bundle of rope and rags to 
keep them in place. Although we tried to level the 
ground as much as possible with a spade, the yurt still 
stood on a slope ; and we had therefore to anchor it 
with strong ark harts (camel’s-hair ropes) to a couple ^ of 
boulders. A slight breeze sprang up in the evening 
and blew for an hour, driving clouds of fine snow through 
the many cracks and crevices ; so the Kirghiz banked up 
a wall of snow all round the tent on the outside. 
At first everything went well. We made a big fire 
of teresken faggots and yak dung, which warmed us and 
thawed our stiffened joints ; but unhappily the yurt was 
filled with suffocating smoke, which made our eyes smart, 
and only found its* way out leisurely through the open 
entrance. The snow inside the tent melted, it is true ; but 
when the fire slackened, it all turned into a mass of ice. 
Meanwhile the Kirghiz began to complain, one after the 
other, of headache ; and two of them were so bad, that 
they asked to be allowed to turn back, to which con- 
sented the more readily as they were manifestly in no 
condition for further fatigue. As night approached, other 
symptoms developed, such as continual singing in the ears, 
slight deafness, a quickened pulse, and lower temperature 
than is normal, combined with persistent sleeplessness, 
probably the result of the headache, which towards morning 
became unendurable. Besides all this we suffered from 
slight attacks of breathlessness. 1 he Mohammedans com- 
plained bitterly the whole night. Our furs were oppres- 
sively heavy. A recumbent position only increased the 
breathlessness ; and I could plainly feel my heart beating 
violently. When the tea was ready, there was no demand 
for it. And as the shades of night came on, the depression 
of the Kirghiz grew very evident ; for they were as little 
used as I to a night spent more than twenty thousand feet 
above the level of the sea. 
