TO PEKING AND HOME 
1261 
across steppes, over ravines, u[) and down hills. On 
some of the stages in northern Mong'olia the ground was 
covered with deep snow, so that camels were used instead 
of horses. 
At Urga I paid a visit to the temple of Maidari, the 
future Buddha. There too I parted from my ever-faithful 
attendant, Islam Bai, who had travelled across MoiiPfolia 
o 
in my wake in a second cart. He was very anxious to 
go home with me to Sweden ; but that could not be. 
It was however hard to part from him. Mr. Luba, the 
Russian consul in Urga, took charge of him, and for 
his own safety's sake sent him in the capacity of a 
Russian post-courier to Uliassutai ; thence he travelled 
via Urumchi to Kashgar, and thence to Osh in Fergana, 
where, as I subsequently learned from Captain Saitseff, 
he arrived safely, and was warmly welcomed by his wife 
and family. 
Thanks to the kind courtesy of Mr. Pavloff, I had an 
escort of Cossacks all the way from Peking to Kiakhta. 
From Kiakhta I travelled by tarantass, sledge, and telega 
through Baikal and Irkutsk as far as Kansk; and from 
Kansk a nine days’ journey by rail took me to St. 
Petersburg'. 
It was on the loth of May 1897 that I at last saw 
the spires and houses of Stockholm peeping between the 
islands of the Skargard. What a thrill of pure, unalloyed 
pleasure to plant my foot once more on Swedish soil, after 
travelling for three years and seven months in the heart 
of the vast continent of Asia ! 
