CHAPTER LXXVI. 
MY CARAVAN; ITS SEVERAL MEMBERS 
HIS was the first camp in an entirely uninhabited 
1 region. Our faces were now set towards unknown, 
uninhabited Tibet, and two months were to elapse before 
we again came into contact with human beings. In 
a word, we burnt our ships behind us, and had the 
comfortable feeling of being safe beyond the reach of all 
the mandarins of China. But for the future we should 
have to make longer and quicker marches, and only stop 
in places where there was grass. But in this regard 
the Taghliks gave us only the poorest Job’s comfort, 
for with one voice they declared that the country to 
the south was everywhere absolutely barren. This agreed 
fully with the experience of the Pievtsoff expedition 
farther to the east, so that I was fully prepared to see 
the caravan animals gradually become exhausted and 
perish on the way. But I saw no danger as regarded 
ourselves ; for, supposing things came to the very worst, 
I hoped we .should be able on foot to reach inhabited 
regions either on the south or on the north. 
But beyond that camp the Taghliks were not accus- 
tomed to go ; and as they had no geographical names 
for the tracts in front of us, I was obliged to enter the 
various geographical features on my map under purely 
conventional signs, .such as numerals and the letters of 
the alphabet. It is very curious that several names in 
that particular district point to a Mongol source of nomen- 
clature, e.g. Kalmak-chapp (the Mongol Ravine), Kalmak- 
utturgan (where Mongols Have Dwelt), Kara-muran (the 
Black Water), Dalai-kurgan (the Fortress of Dalai), and 
Lama-chimin (the Lama’s Grazing-grounds). 
953 
II. -19 
