AMONG THE MONGOLIAN LAKES 1127 
as this. We only had one or two glimpses of the stream, 
its bed was cut so deeply in the soft soil. The previous 
night was cold (-8°7 Fahr. or -22°6 C.), so that several 
sheets of ice tossed on the current, crashing sharply 
against the banks and against one another. The road 
to Sorgotsu, a distance of seventeen and a half miles, ran 
through sandy desert, interspersed with small sand-dunes, ' 
reed-beds, and steppes. 
Loppsen’s cheerfulness had now entirely deserted him. 
He rode along silent and depressed, his eyes constantly 
fixed upon the road in front of him, and all day long he 
kept mumbling, “ On maneh padmeh hum.” When I 
enquired what was the cause of this gloom, he shook his 
head, and replied, we were now coming to a dangerous 
country. Two Mongols he saw whilst resting at Alikhani- 
gol told him, that only a few days before Tangut robbers 
had been to Kurlyk-nor and stolen some horses. He 
begged us to have our firearms in readiness, for even 
though we did not meet any of the robbers on the 
road, they were all the same hiding in the mountains, 
whence they could watch all our movements. Our fires 
at night would guide them, and we might think ourselves 
lucky if we lost nothing more than our horses. I therefore 
brought out the rifles and revolvers, and distributed them 
amongst the men of the caravan, at the same time giving 
each man a supply of cartridges. But Sorgotsu was 
silent and deserted. We saw no fires, either out on the 
steppe or at the foot of the mountains, and no signs of 
human beings. We were quite reassured. All the same, 
for precaution’s sake, the horses were brought back into 
camp at dark, and turned loose again to graze at daybreak. 
Our dogs however were excellent night-watchmen. The 
smallest suspicious sound set them off barking. 
The evenings and nights were brilliantly bright, still, 
and cold. The ink in my pen was frozen as early as 
four o’clock in the afternoon, and I had to keep thawing 
it by breathing upon it. I got out my old Kashgar 
fur coat, which had lain packed away for close upon a 
twelvemonth. Hot tea was now more welcome than 
