«34 
THROUGH ASIA 
the tame camel on the other hand, in consequence of the 
work he does, and of his larger secretion of fat, hang 
over a good deal. The colour was brown, slightly tinged 
with red, a little lighter than the tame camel ; the hair 
was remarkably fine, and soft, and free from flaws. 
But there was no time to be lost. The sun had set and 
the evening was growing chilly: at 9 p.m. we had i6°9 
Fahr. {-8°4 C.). “We must save the skin,” I said; but 
Islam remarked that it was a camel-load in itself, and 
that just now w^e must keep the animals as lightly laden 
as possible, partly because we had the desert before us, 
and partly because we had to carry water. There was a 
moment’s pause of doubt, which was cut short by Kasim, 
who had shot the camel, roundly declaring, that the skin 
should go with us even if he had to carry it himself 
The work was now redistributed. Islam and Ahmed 
skinned the camel ; Kasim found out the most likely 
place to set to work to dig a well; while Kerim Jan 
looked after the camp generally and tended the camels, 
which were kept tied up that night in case they might 
take a fancy to go off and join their wild kindred. Mean- 
while I got my own supper ready ; and, as usual, wrote 
down my notes, and worked out the day’s route. 
Late in the evening we all assembled imund the fire. 
The camel’s skin was so heavy that it took three men all 
their time to drag it to camp ; the head and feet, it is true, 
were not yet cut off The men still had several hours’ 
work beside the fire, before the skin was all off, and ready 
to be spread out on the ground and strewn with warm 
sand. The latter process was repeated several times 
during' the night ; the sand absorbed the moisture, so that 
the skin decreased very considerably in weight. 
The well-digging, on the contrary, came to a less satis- 
factory conclusion. Kasim dug away indefatigably ; but 
at the depth of 10 ft. 6 in. the sand was still relatively 
dry, so that the task was given up. 
We therefore made up our minds to stay where we were 
the whole of the following day ; for we had learnt by dear- 
bought experience, that it is fatal to venture far into the 
