Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/56

Rh hop is often twined, and tamarisk appears on the sandy and stony spots. The woodland meadows and slopes of the neighbouring hills are everywhere clothed with the thickest grass, interwoven with convolvulus and dodder, often 7ft. high and almost impassable in summer. But at the season we arrived on the Kunges (early in September) the grass was withering and dying down, and the trees and bushes had donned their autumnal attire.

After the monotony of steppe scenery, the wooded islands and banks of the Kunges produced an agreeable impression, and yielding to its influence we determined on making some stay in this highly-favoured little corner of the Tian Shan. Here, too, we could reckon on a rich, scientific harvest. Moreover, two of our Cossacks had proved unserviceable for travel, and we were obliged to send them back to Kulja and exchange them for two soldiers, whose arrival could not be expected for ten days.

We selected for our camping-ground in the forests of Kunges the very spot occupied for some months in 1874 by one of our sotnias of Cossacks. Here the shed they had erected, their kitchen and bath-house were still standing; we too enjoyed a good and final wash in this bath-house before starting for the Tian Shan.