Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/288

 in thickness. Chinese and Mongol labourers are hired to dig it out; when it is loaded into boats which descend the Hoang-ho.

Another remarkable object which we had seen a few days ago was the remains of an ancient town, dating from the time of Chinghiz-Khan. These historical ruins are situated amidst the sands of Kuzupchi, twenty miles from the bank of the River, whence they can be seen very well. According to the Mongols, this was a fortified and large city. Each side of its quadrangular walls measured 15 li (about 5 miles), with a height and thickness of some 50 feet. The wells inside are 350 feet deep. The whole is now covered with sand-drift, nothing but the walls remaining. We heard no legends about the place; all the Mongols could tell us was that it was built by the orders of Chinghiz-Khan.

The summer heats, which about the middle of August had diminished, were renewed with their former intensity in the latter part of that month, and were terribly exhausting to us on the march. Although we always rose with the dawn, the packing of our things and loading the camels, together with tea-drinking, without which neither Cossack nor Mongol will begin a march for anything in the world, occupied more than two hours, and by the time we had started the sun was already high above the horizon. At such times a perfectly clear sky and breathless atmosphere often prepared us for the unwelcome advent of a hot day.

The order of our caravan was always the same.