1 124 
THROUGH ASIA 
the wind as though they were supplicating, that peace 
might descend upon some poor soul which had departed 
this life stained with an awful sin. The stillness of the 
night was broken by mysterious sounds. Were the spirits 
of the lake dancing in gladness across its smooth darkling 
surface ? No, it was only the wild-geese calling one 
to another among the reeds. Two or three ruddy fires 
gleamed across the darkness of the night from the east 
end of the lake. 
October 28th. The path kept parallel with the lake 
shore, that is towards the east-south-east. On our left 
therefore we had Kurlyk-nor, backed on its opposite 
or northern shore by the Southern Koko-nor Range, and 
on our right the desolate plain. As we advanced, the 
lake gradually contracted, and its water was more and 
more encroached upon by the reeds, which nevertheless 
left a narrow belt of open water close under the southern 
shore. We were quite alone in the wilderness, not 
another creature to be seen, though every now and again 
we encountered the skeletons of horses lying by the 
side of the path, proclaiming that people were wont to 
travel that way. Since leaving Tenghelik we had not 
met a single mounted Mongol. Loppsen said that the 
further we advanced towards the east the more unsafe 
grew the roads by reason of the depredations of the 
Tangut robbers. At the east end of the lake we saw 
however in the distance two or three solitary tents. We 
did not stop, but pushed on to Alikhani-gol (fifteen and a 
half miles), a stream which because of the thick reed-beds 
enters the lake unseen. Its banks were marshy and 
fenny, and the ground treacherous. In one place, which 
looked perfectly firm, Islam Bai dropped so deep into 
the soft slushy mud that the men had much ado to save 
his horse. During that day’s march we lost the first of 
our new horses. 
On October 30th we rode across the Barun-kovveh (the 
southern branch of the Alikhani-gol), and had on our left 
hand Tsun-ula (the Northern Mountains). The geo- 
graphical nomenclature in Mongolia is generally as simple 
