SI-NING-FU TO LIANG-CHOW-FU 1217 
place where the road crossed it, the river was frozen from 
side to side, and the ice covered with a sprinkling of 
sand, so that both horses and caravans were enabled to 
cross over without the least difficulty. 
The two Chinese went first with one of their carts, 
drawn by three horses. Down they went at full gallop 
on to the ice ; but the wheels had barely made one 
revolution when they cut into the ice as easily as a razor 
shears through paper, and the cart stuck fast. The load 
had to be taken entirely off and carried across to the 
other side ; then after a great deal of labour we succeeded 
by united effort in hauling out the cart. 
The men examined the ice higher up. It was every- 
where too thin to bear our heavy vehicles. Then they 
sought out a wider place, and broke up the ice with 
their axes, and so made a ford. But the water was 
a good three feet deep, and full of brashy ice and big 
floating lumps. My baggage-cart was the next to try 
its luck. Down it plunged into the water, and stopped — 
stuck fast. Two other horses were harnessed in front. 
From the edge of the ice all the four drivers shouted 
and whooped, and cracked their whips. The poor horses, 
who were standing up to the girths in ice-cold water, 
reared, stumbled, and fell, and were very nearly drowned. 
Then they leapt to one side, and tried to scramble on to 
the ice ; but the men forced them back into the water. 
One of our two Chinese associates, a young man, who 
apparently did not know what nerves meant, stripped 
stark naked, notwithstanding there were fourteen degrees 
of frost Fahr. (ten Centigrade), and jumped down into 
the water, and pushed away the ice and stones against 
which the wheel was jammed, and then unravelled the 
reins and traces, which the horses had got into a thick 
tangle. It made me shiver to see him working in the 
freezing water; for I could actually hardly keep warm 
in my furs. Meanwhile Islam Bai made a fire among 
the bushes on the far side of the river, at which the 
hardy young Chinaman went and warmed himself, whilst 
the other men, after desperate efforts, succeeded in getting 
