Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/47

Rh The Kirghiz dog, called tazi, is akin to a greyhound. It is intelligent, bold, and remarkably swift of foot. Among the Galtchas and the people of Pamir another dog, called gurdja, a species of basset with pointed ears, is to be met with. It is strong and intelligent, particularly in finding the track on mountains covered with snow or ice; but all attempts to take it out of its native haunts have failed, and even the short journey to Samarcand inspires it with an irresistible longing to return. M. de Ujfalvy has succeeded in bringing back to Paris three specimens of the tazi, which may be seen in the Jardin d'Acclimatation. It would have been as cruel as it would have been useless to have attempted the same task with the gurdja.

The journey of M. Gregor N. Potanin through the Altai mountains in the autumn of 1876 is too interest- ing to be passed over in silence. Travelling from the post of Zaissan in Kuldja he reached Bulun-tokhoi in seventeen days, travelling along a "new carriage road that has been constructed leading to the valley north of the Saur mountains. Beyond the post of Bulun- tokhoi, which was held by a sotnia of cossacks, the traveller followed the eastern shore of Lake Ulyungur, crossing the deep and rapid Black Irtysh at Durbeljin in a ferry-boat. A month after he set out from Zaissan he arrived on the banks of the river Kran at a point about eight miles from the Chinese city of Tulta. The heat had been very intense during the march, and the annoyance from flies was extreme ; but on reaching the Kran more temperate weather was encountered. In fact the nights were cold, as hoar frosts