Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/67

Rh of the wheels may chance to roll produces a violent jolting of the whole vehicle and consequently of its unfortunate occupant. It may easily be imagined how his sufferings may be aggravated when travelling with post horses at a trot.

In a conveyance of this kind, hired from a Kiakhta merchant, we determined to proceed with camels through Mongolia to Kalgan. Our contractor was a Mongol whо had brought a quantity of tea to Kiakhta and was returning for a fresh load. After some negotiations, we finally agreed with him for the transport of ourselves, one Cossack, and all our baggage, to Kalgan for 70 lans (140 rubles, 20l.).

The journey was not to take more than forty days, a comparatively long time, as the Mongols usually convey travellers from Kiakhta to Peking in twenty-five days, but the price charged for this accelerated speed is proportionately higher. I wished to acquaint myself as far as I could with the nature of the country through which I was about to travel, and, therefore, a slow rate of progress was rather an advantage to me than otherwise. A Cossack of the Buriat tribe belonging to the Trans-Baikal force was ordered to accompany us as interpreter of the Mongol language. He proved to be an excellent dragoman; but being the son of a rich man, and disliking the hardships of travel, he soon became so