TO FORT PAMIR AND BACK 391 
Now however, having to foot it all the way to Fort Pamir, 
he galled his hind-paws. The men therefore made him 
a pair of skin boots, which gave him a ridiculous likeness 
to Puss in Boots. It was irresistibly comical to see the 
extravagant care with which he first made trial of his 
w'onderful foot-gear. At the outset he only used his 
fore-legs, and dragged himself along in a highly un- 
graceful sitting posture ; then he tried running on three 
legs, lifting each hind-leg in turn ; but finally he found 
out that the boots were practical, and were meant to pro- 
tect his paws from further hurt. 
The following morning we crossed over to the other 
side of the Murghab, and continued down its left bank, i.e., 
westwards. At length, after we had passed a succession 
of spurs which projected into the valley en dchelon, like 
the side-scenes of a theatre, the valley suddenly opened 
out before us into the expansion through which it receives 
its tributary the Ak-baital, and in which Fort Pamir Is 
situated. We rode hard all day. About five o’clock we 
perceived the light blue smoke slowly curling up against 
the darker background of the mountains ; and an hour 
later rode Into the courtyard of the fort. 
All was silent and still ; there were no officers about. 
But a Cossack sentry challenged “Who goes there?” 
I made myself at home in the solitary fortress, and soon 
discovered the reason of its being deserted. It appeared 
that a young lieutenant from St. Petersburg had been 
a guest at the fort since the previous day, and in his 
honour a picnic was being given by the officers in the 
neighbourhood. It w'as not long before the whole party 
returned, my old friend Captain Saitseff at their head. 
The younger officers who had been under him the previous 
winter were now in the field, engaged in active operations 
under General Yonnoff against the Afghans in Shugnan ; 
and their places had been filled by others, who were to 
spend the winter at the fort under the command of 
Captain Skersky, an officer of the general staff 
Two other changes had been made since my former 
visit. The lonely fort, which one of my friends in P'ergana 
