Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/94

Rh bank; in this, at the time of our journey, there were only a few soldiers from Korla.

During the whole of our progress down the Tarim, i.e. during the whole of November and part of December, the weather was very fine, bright, and warm. The night frosts were certainly as severe as 7° Fahr.; but no sooner did the sun appear than the temperature rose rapidly, and it was not till the 19th December that the thermometer stood below freezing point at midday. It was probably about this time that the Tarim froze, although perhaps not entirely. Gales were of rare occurrence, but the air was excessively dry, and filled with vapoury dust. Of atmospherical deposits there were none, indeed the natives say that a snowfall is a rare occurrence in this country, happening perhaps once or twice in three or four winters, and thawing rapidly; rains, too, are very unusual in summer.

From the above-mentioned mud fort we directed our march, not towards Lob-nor, which was now near, but due south to the village of Chargalyk, founded thirty years ago by exiles and free emigrants from Khoten. The village now consists of twenty-one houses, and a mud fort to contain