Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/166

 from hunger more than once, when no game was obtainable and we could not pay the extortionate price demanded for a sheep. On returning to Peking after the first year, I could not help smiling on hearing a member of one of the foreign embassies enquire how we managed to carry about with us so large a quantity of silver, gold not being current in Mongolia. What would this gentleman have thought of us if he had known that on starting from Peking we only took 65l. in cash?

To add still more to our embarrassment, the moneys assigned for our use were not even paid in full, but were remitted to Peking in half-yearly instalments by the War Department, and a year in advance by the Geographical Society and Botanical Gardens. The obliging assistance of General Vlangali rescued us from the critical position in which we should otherwise have found ourselves, and I received out of the Mission fund a loan of the annual amount payable to me, and, on starting for the second time, even more.

Silver rubles are exchanged at Peking at the rate of two for one liang (taël) of Chinese silver (5s. 6d.). I should also mention that, with the exception of the small cash, made of copper alloyed with zinc, there is no coinage in China. Silver is always paid and received by weight, and according to assay. The unit is the liang (taël or ounce), its tenth part is a kiang (also pronounced tsiang);